I don't know why ZOS designed fishing in this game to have fishing holes. It's much easier to drop a lure in any body of water. Being constantly interrupted because your fishing hole disappeared is super annoying.

There are so many areas in the game that need improving, fishing isn't broken just not as entertaining as some want it but with everything else that needs attention I wouldn't want to see Devs spending time trying to make fishing better.

Maybe down the line if they manage to get to a point where some of the more fundamental aspects of the game are all working well then sure work on some of mini games but personally I like fishing how it is, as I can do it while watching sport or a film and don't have to concentrate, other times I enjoy just chilling out fishing after spending a few hours doing much more hectic stuff in game.

Sure if they made it optional then who could complain but I do not see Zos going that route, if they change it then most likely it will be for all and that would actually put me off fishing but hey I'm just a small fish in a big pond

So as a specific suggestion that would make me, err, let's call it "engage" with fishing more:

An "Auto-Fishing" setting!

Like Auto-Loot or Auto-Run.
You don't have to press a button randomly every 1-5 seconds (but you still can, if you like that). Instead, I go up to a fishing hole, my character does the fishing (as they should, what else am I paying them for), and I go do something more fun like do spreadsheets or write business emails. And then I just check every few minutes if the hole is still there, or move to the next one.

This has been done in other games before. It's adapting fishing from the Civilisation series of games. You plop down a fishing boat at a fishing spot and periodically check whether it's still there or a barbarian has killed it.



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The only other game with fishing that I play, is Valheim*. I don't do fishing in Valheim. It's annoying, fickle (even more so than the rest of the already fickle controls in that game), and unfun. I suppose fishing isn't for me. ;D

* And recently added to No Man's Sky, though I haven't even looked at how they do it.

Varana wrote: »

So as a specific suggestion that would make me, err, let's call it "engage" with fishing more:

An "Auto-Fishing" setting!

Like Auto-Loot or Auto-Run.
You don't have to press a button randomly every 1-5 seconds (but you still can, if you like that). Instead, I go up to a fishing hole, my character does the fishing (as they should, what else am I paying them for), and I go do something more fun like do spreadsheets or write business emails. And then I just check every few minutes if the hole is still there, or move to the next one.

This has been done in other games before. It's adapting fishing from the Civilisation series of games. You plop down a fishing boat at a fishing spot and periodically check whether it's still there or a barbarian has killed it.



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The only other game with fishing that I play, is Valheim*. I don't do fishing in Valheim. It's annoying, fickle (even more so than the rest of the already fickle controls in that game), and unfun. I suppose fishing isn't for me. ;D

* And recently added to No Man's Sky, though I haven't even looked at how they do it.

I would like an auto fishing option. This has been the best suggestion so far.

i think it would be awesome if it were easier to see when you have to reel in a fish.
other than that Fishing is fine to me.

more fishing furnishings, Fishing Hole furniture for homes, and fishing rod styles could be fun additions.

and perhaps fishing related merchant?
- could give quests for catching specific kinds of fish (trouts, bass, slaughterfish, eels).
- sell fishing bait and furnishings.

I think if it were like the fishing in RDR2 (& RDR2 Online) it would/could be much more fun. Like:
https://youtube.com/shorts/ejXbUyz_b50?si=aoSkOs9Ar3QweQHT

Fishing in that game is really really relaxing. 😌

However I just don't see them changing how fishing works after all this time honestly, and I can't see how it could be made "optional", buuuut I could happily be proven wrong.

Northwold wrote: »

This is actually... A really good idea...? I dunno, Infinite Archive has random optional extra doors that take you to mad escapades. That genuinely doesn't sound like the worst thing in the world for fishing. You hook some strange object and feel a little woozy and find yourself in some old dwemer glass library at the bottom of the ocean or whatever. A big one bites and pulls you out to sea. You can keep going for bonus points and try to hold on or let it go.

I was thinking more like, every so often (tenth cast or some relatively larger cast), you bring up a random piece of "trash" armor or gear, such as might be reasonably found on the waterbed in a land which has seen fighting/war. Not a gummy sack which inexplicably has a single runestone in it. That's always struck me as a really weird thing to find on the riverbed.

But I kind of like the way you think.

Seriously, in real life, I love fishing. In games - any games that I can think of in the couple of decades I've been computer gaming - fishing tends to be the most boring, time wasting activity (my opinion). I try it in each game which offers fishing since maybe, just maybe, the activity will have been done better or more engaging. The "a fish has taken your bait, keep it in the center of the circle as you reel in" by moving the line right or left idea usually results in my rage-cursing and figuratively throwing the pole back into the water. (I find a certain type of ball mouse works better for those mechanics, but a standard mouse does not for me.) ESO's chosen mechanics is okay, just exceedingly boring, sometimes very hard on the eyes depending on the angle of the sunlight on the water and the direction you must watch, and the underwhelming chance - yes, even with a "curated" event such as this one - of catching a "rare" fish to complete the achievement.

However many years into this game - I was a beta tester but didn't play until TamOne released - I only have the starter areas cleared completely of the trophy fish on one account and a fish here and there for the rest of the maps. In my experience and opinion, the fishing is a waste of the time I simply don't have enough of to actually play the game as much as I'd like already.

How would I suggest to change it? I would make it an absolutely optional activity. To be honest, I don't know enough about coding to suggest an alternative to mechanics except in regards to light angles, timing of hits, percentile of type of 'catch', etc. Achievement? Yes, absolutely. If you enjoy virtual fishing -or- you've spent the crazy-number of hours casting your line -or- you've simply been favored by RNGeesus, you should be rewarded somehow. I simply question tying RNG-based fishing to a relatively major furnishing achievement - just so people hopefully do the activity at length to pad the numbers.

Varana wrote: »

So as a specific suggestion that would make me, err, let's call it "engage" with fishing more:

An "Auto-Fishing" setting!

Like Auto-Loot or Auto-Run.
You don't have to press a button randomly every 1-5 seconds (but you still can, if you like that). Instead, I go up to a fishing hole, my character does the fishing (as they should, what else am I paying them for), and I go do something more fun like do spreadsheets or write business emails. And then I just check every few minutes if the hole is still there, or move to the next one.

That is the opposite of engaging with fishing. Having our characters repeatedly perform actions while we are afk doing other activities is the definition of a bot.

SilverBride wrote: »

Varana wrote: »

So as a specific suggestion that would make me, err, let's call it "engage" with fishing more:

An "Auto-Fishing" setting!

Like Auto-Loot or Auto-Run.
You don't have to press a button randomly every 1-5 seconds (but you still can, if you like that). Instead, I go up to a fishing hole, my character does the fishing (as they should, what else am I paying them for), and I go do something more fun like do spreadsheets or write business emails. And then I just check every few minutes if the hole is still there, or move to the next one.

That is the opposite of engaging with fishing. Having our characters repeatedly perform actions while we are afk doing other activities is the definition of a bot. That is a big no-no.

Technically, it's not a bot. It's simply performing a continuous action. A bot is when software is actively playing the game for you. But that's not what is occuring in the suggestion. The suggestion is basically just turning fishing nodes into another form of harvesting node (Albeit one that takes longer to harvest because you harvest from it multiple times).

It's not more a bot than say, queuing up multiple crafted items in a game like WoW or Skyrim. You perform an extended action to craft all these items.

Of course, this does bring up the point about one of the annoyances of fishing in styles like in ESO (Also the same in WoW - Though WoW offers more depth outside of the action itself in its skill levels and equipment/items that boost it) in that it is quasi-AFK content.

You're barely doing anything, since you're mostly just sat there waiting for the bobber to move... But you're not quite AFK because you still actually need to be there in order to click the button to reel in your catch. (Often in a way that means, you can't even focus on other things in game, like talking to friends/guilds, looking at your skills, managing your inventory etc. Since you need to be ready to press that button to reel in the catch at a moment's notice)

This is the thing that normally drives away less interested parties. This need to do nothing, yet be ever ready to respond to the bobber.

Meanwhile, other mini-games such as Scrying/Excavation or ToT (Outside of PvP matches) you don't ever have that need to be locked in. You can do things like go get a drink while the opponent takes their turn in ToT, you can pause and talk in chat while excavating, you can tab out and write posts like this on the forums while the opponent picks their patrons...

While it's true that this sort of emulates real life fishing, wherein you sit around waiting for the tug and then quickly grab the rod and start reeling... The nature of how video game fishing functions, where you're guaranteed a catch and it will happen within a minute every time, there's less lenience for actually doing other things while waiting (Unlike in real life where it can take hours for a bite, if it happens at all. So you have plenty of opportunity to talk, read a book or other such activities)

It's quite likely that many concerns about fishing could be aleviated simply by eliminating that need to press a button to reel in the catch. So you just interact with the pool and then wait until the loot screen pops up with your catch (This skipped if you have auto-loot on) and move on. Since removing this need to be ever present would allow people to still do other things without feeling forced to sit there waiting for the bobber ready to press the button to reel it in and thus it'd feel less boring.

Turning fishing into a continuous action where you simply continue this process until the pool is gone isn't necessary, but could be considered if it's desired.

spartaxoxo wrote: »

disky wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

This is what I don't understand. If someone finds so much of this game to be boring and lacking then what exactly is bringing them here instead of to a game that already meets their preferences?

A lifetime of love for TES, and a love of this game, in general. It is possible to love an imperfect thing, and seek to improve upon it.

Yup. I mostly love this game or I wouldn't be here. I especially love the lore. I've been playing Elder Scrolls games for most of my life. I like TES games. It doesn't mean I think their games are perfect though.

Fishing is something I think they could improve on. Criticism isn't hate. Criticism isn't an attack. The opposite of loving a game isn't critique, it's indifference.

I completely agree that fishing could be improved on, but I do think it's incumbent on those who call for improvements to say what changes they'd like to see - and not just by listing a series of other games that do it differently, but by detailing how their favoured changes could be introduced.

I don't personally want to see it changed per se, but I'd like to see it extended - such as by the introduction of a fishing guild with some specific fishing skills that would add some additional content to the fishing system. I'm glad ZOS finally introduced some fishing Endeavours, we've been lobbying for that for a good while, and now it's included in Golden Pursuits too. Adding additional purpose to fishing in this way is a positive thing.

The basic mechanics, however, are fine in my view and I wouldn't want to see those mucked around with just because some players don't find them fun when others are perfectly happy with them.

Taril wrote: »

Technically, it's not a bot. It's simply performing a continuous action. A bot is when software is actively playing the game for you. But that's not what is occuring in the suggestion. The suggestion is basically just turning fishing nodes into another form of harvesting node (Albeit one that takes longer to harvest because you harvest from it multiple times).

Having something repeatedly do any action for the player while they may even be afk IS the action of a bot, and is against the ToS.

SilverBride wrote: »

Taril wrote: »

Technically, it's not a bot. It's simply performing a continuous action. A bot is when software is actively playing the game for you. But that's not what is occuring in the suggestion. The suggestion is basically just turning fishing nodes into another form of harvesting node (Albeit one that takes longer to harvest because you harvest from it multiple times).

Having something repeatedly do any action for the player while they may even be afk IS the action of a bot, and is against the ToS.

A bot will peform actions for a player. But not all actions performed on behalf of a player are bots.

Case and point;

- You automatically get logged out of the game if you are idle for too long. So ZOS is breaking their own TOS by botting everyone's game? No.

- You can mass craft and mass salvage items. Turning many actions into one action. So ZOS is breaking their own TOS by botting everyone's game? No.

- You can automatically loot items, both with the "Take all" button and the option feature that automatically takes every item (Or steals every item) from containers you open on. So ZOS is breaking their own TOS by botting everyone's game? No.

If ZOS implements a feature that consolidates player actions, it is not "Botting" and it is not against their TOS.

It only counts if you're using 3rd party software to take actions on your behalf. Be it macros or scripts.

Or should we have to start pressing forward for each individual character step because otherwise that's "Botting" and against TOS?

Elvenheart wrote: »

and any complications added to it would simply make me like it less.

This. I don't mind fishing being boring, but if they make it a mini-game, it will be boring, tedious, and not relaxing in the slightest.

I like the idea of fishing being relaxing. If I could sit there and enjoy the music, and watch the denizens of Tamriel live their lives, I would not mind it too much. I wish we could do something while we fished; perhaps read our journal/a book, do some inventory management, or browse through our collections.

I find it incredibly limiting (and not in a challenging or interesting way) that we can't do anything at all while fishing. If we could ask Sharp to hold the fishing rod while we read, that would be awesome. I'm sure he'd love it too.

Black Desert actually allows you to fish AFK and is the only fishing system that I actually engage with. Fishing in WoW wasn't fun, fishing in ESO isn't fun, fishing in Throne and Liberty is hot garbage, fishing in real life is actually fun. The only non-real life fishing game that I find fun is the hand held games that have an actual reel you have to use like in real life fishing. Maybe if they could get a controller like that for ESO I would find it enjoyable.