Love of Fishing....We Need More Rares

[Tejaye]

I have been playing on and off since Ocotber 1999. I am an avid Fisherman in real life. In EQ I love it just as much. Instead of hunting on many days, or questing, I fish in different zones and enjoy my surroundings, just as in real life. I then collect my catch and use it for baking. Some of the catch I sell off. Unlike in real life, I do enjoy entering some of the planes or dangerous areas to fish. It is an adrenaline rush. But to compare this to real life, as a kid I recall sneaking onto some old guys land to fish and the adrenaline rush as we hoped he wouldn't chase us away with a bat LOL.
I feel EQ should make fishing a little more rewarding and interesting. Maybe more rare catches. Maybe do more for fishing graphics.
I do enjoy making my own flies for fishing. I go into the various zones collecting the materials needed to make the many flies available.
Any opinions on what EQ could do to make more folks get excited about it?

[furioso]

You can't catch every fish using the same lure. Try using a deep sea lure to catch a catfish!

What about adding the making of fishing equipment to the tradeskill. In this way we could justify increasing the fishing skill above 200. For example: you can increase your skill to 200 the old fashion way but then you will progress no further. To increase your skill past 200 you must make your own fishing equipment using tackleboxes (lures, poles, nets, traps...) and fish using that equipment.


Only by using the newly constructed equipment can you catch specific creatures from the deep (rock crab pots catch rock crabs, deep water squid lures catch deep water squid...). These new critters and their parts could then be used in the other trade skills (rock crab shell extract for brewing, deep sea squid ink for research, sea monster eyes for jewelry...).

Maybe some mobs could be spawned only by fishing? Fish using sea monster lures and you may spawn a rare sea monster you will have to fight to catch and kill. That could bring some excitement to fishing!

I've always hoped to see some fishing put to some use in EverQuest. It may be too late for Underfoot but maybe in the expansion after that?

[Tejaye]

You made excellent points. As you build more advanced tackle, perhaps you can catch fish considered more rare, etc. But EQ definitely could make the game more interesting for its customers.
Look at WoW, they have fishing contests every Sunday with rewards. They have one rare named fish in a certain body of water. The float bobs up and down when a fish bites. Better graphics, better ideas.
EQ really needs to do some more thinking in this area as they lose more and more customers to other issues.