A suggestion on how to make fishing useful again.

Rodario · April 2014

The reason I'm writing this is that during the early BETA, fishing was actually useful i.e. provided ingredients for provisioning and alchemy. Or so I read on the internet, where there's still fishing guides based on BETA information.

Let's be honest, I know it's a fantasy world, but i can't imagine 10 different cultures, almost all their lands bordering the ocean, uniformly having decided not to eat fish.

Even in it's current useless state, I enjoy fishing immensely and have to keep myself from wasting too much time on it. Now here's my take on how to improve the experience/usefulness:

Reintroduce fish as provisioning/alchemy mats. Maybe fish oil could be a byproduct of cooking fish, then be used as a reagent, if it's a separate oil per fish species, or as a solvent if it's always the same oil.

Rare fish should be lootable again, not just a check sign in the achievements page. The drop/catch rate should not be increased, but the fish should be stackable (The greens can be caught fairly often, the blues are the really rare ones).

Include Rare fish in the highest level foods and their oil in the highest level potions and/or give them real value again, something along the lines of 150G per green, 500G per blue.

If they stay pure trophy items and do not receive a high vendor value, don't make them lootable until we have player housing, many walls for fishing trophies included.

This may not be high on all too many priority lists and of course, bug fixes should come first, but as soon as zenimax's staff (who have done admirable work so far, imho) have time to focus on future content, I'd really love to see a system similar to the one described.

TL;DR: Fish should be in provisioning and alchemy recipes.

Rev Rielle · April 2014

I'm not sure about being in alchemical recipes, but provisioning? Yes, definitely.
Like you, I think fishing needs a lot of love, both in the mechanics of it (e.g. you can't do -anything- whilst fishing or else you break the line, and the animations on others that fish around you are broken: you simply don't see them), and also the application of what you catch.(e.g. like you say; having it more applicable to the greater game, rather than just being it's own little thing).

It needs a lot of love, but there's potential there. We'll see if the developers continue to run with it, or (if there's poor management there) leave it to rot in it's current form. It will be a good little case study actually for the outlook of the greater game, and it's direction, as a whole.

Time will tell.

EDIT:
Additionally, one of the great things about fishing is that it is a simple, social thing you can do in game with other players. Unfortunately fishing in ESO - in it's current forum - is anything but that.
Hopefully any changes made by development are done with this foremost in their minds. For example; when players are able to effectively create and hold their own robust fishing competitions, then they'll know they've got a good system working.

GLaDOS · April 2014

I would LOVE fish recipes for provisioning! I mean, we can cook maggots and stuff, why not fish? I would much rather have sushi than maggot bites for sure.

Chomppa · April 2014

I love cooking fish , also some bigger fish should give us a bit of a fight when trying to reel them in.

Chalybos · April 2014

Agreed. Hopefully they will introduce fish as being useful. I definitely think they could use it in alchemy. The fish oils, the scales, that sort of thing, as well as actual food.

keithlm · April 2014

I enjoy fake in game fishing also. I've leveled up fishing in other MMO.

But there needs to be at least a minor reason to get the fish. (Other than vendoring them.)

Plus I always enjoyed that there was a percentage you could fish up some really cool loot. (It is always a very small percentage... but it could still happen... it isn't zero.)

At the very least perhaps some cosmetic items.

Rodario · May 2014

I've noticed they listed "improvements to fishing" in their may 1st to do list. I just hope they do more than just enable chatting. Though even that would already help a lot.

Rodario · June 2014

Looks like fishing is not going to get love anytime soon...

LonePirate · June 2014

Rodario wrote: »

Looks like fishing is not going to get love anytime soon...

Are you sure? I heard the loot sacks you reel in sometimes contain some pretty good things, even some rare items occasionally.

Rodario · June 2014

LonePirate wrote: »

Rodario wrote: »

Looks like fishing is not going to get love anytime soon...

Are you sure? I heard the loot sacks you reel in sometimes contain some pretty good things, even some rare items occasionally.

They do, but if that's the only reason to fish, it's more efficient to just run around and farm nodes and chests.

Sakiri · June 2014

I'd rather it not become needed for provisioning or alchemy.

Most other games ended up with fish creating the best food, and fark fishing.

Buying them from other players? No thanks. Either it does the exact same thing another food does, or don't fix what isn't broken.

Woolenthreads · June 2014

Rev Rielle wrote: »

I'm not sure about being in alchemical recipes....

There are several IRL which provide things that might be considered alchemical ingredients. The Puffer Fish and many others provide Neuro-toxins, though obviously that would work better when(if!) they introduce poisons. Salmon have Omega3 Fatty acids (health). Whales and other cetaceans produce various fatty substances that act both as bases and as perfumes.

It's a believable thing.

chllorcab16_ESO · June 2014

There's history of alchemical components provided by several forms of fish in elder scroll games, not only Skyrim. Scales, or even the entire fish can be used for alchemy.
I love fishing, but the fact that it is so useless here isn't encouraging. I miss my fishing trophies from lord of the rings, for instance. I hope housing will be a new way to make fishing a real activity in eso.

bruceb14_ESO5 · June 2014

Fishing to Cook, use in Alchemy, Trophies that don't take Bag Space, Achievements, Treasures would all be great. Rather lackluster at the moment.

Rodario · July 2014

@ZOS_MichelleA‌ I saw you replying to a new fishing thread in general discussion, saying it had some great ideas. Since the base sentiment is the same and some of the ideas in that post are a little more elaborate in this one, may I direct your attention here?

Maybe I should have reposted this when general discussion opened. At the time, crafting discussion seemed to be the best choice.

AlexDougherty · July 2014

I would just like them make the fishing more interesting, make it a proper minigame, like in Legend of Zelda. Give us something to do rather than just wait for the float to bob and press E.