Official Feedback: Boat Travel and Fishing

panderus · September 2016

Hey everyone, Dreadnaught (Panderus proxy post) here. One of the major new systems releasing with the Sea of Moving Ice involves boat travel, fishing, and treasure hunting, so this thread is for any bug reports and/or feedback you have regarding these features on the preview shard. Some things to pay attention to while engaging in these activities:

Boat travel:

How does sailing around the zone feel?
Does the boat ever not appear while you’re in the water, or appear while you’re on land?

Fishing:

Is it clear how to fish?
Is it fun?
Do you feel inclined to seek out active fishing spots? (noticeable by birds flying above and splashes in the water)
Refer to the zone collections page for a list of all the fish and their respective biomes.

Known Issues:

While fishing, you’ll occasionally find bottles with treasure maps in them. The map images are not yet hooked up to these maps, but should be within a couple weeks.
Some of the map locations MAY have terrain that is inaccessible.

As usual, please use RED text ( text ) for bug reports and CYAN text ( text ) for feedback.

checkmatein3 · September 2016

Feedback: The transition between the land to water is okay. It is still cumbersome in that you are running on water for a few seconds. But the boat pops up and you go. However, transition from water to land is problematic. First, the auto-pathing can frequently lead you to shorelines that are inaccessible. It is quite possible to get stuck in the shorelines trying to transition out of the boat. When this happens, it will take a bit of time to move out of the stuck position. Secondly, after you are on land, it takes quite a few seconds for the old HUD to return to begin using encounter powers. In some cases, the landings have mobs, so the mobs had an advantage to attack while I was still transitioning out of water mode.

checkmatein3 · September 2016

Feedback: While fishing, I pressed my mount button (which was greyed out), and the boat disappeared. On screen I appeared to be standing in the water. I was not able to change the view until I landed, then re-entered the water.

checkmatein3 · September 2016

Feedback: A hint could be added to fishing to press AND HOLD in the direction it tells you. Otherwise, you could have some very upset people who press in the direction (left, right, back) but don't hold and never catch a fish.

checkmatein3 · September 2016

I do not know whether I would actively seek out fishing. It was quite easy to do after I learned how to do it. However, the real choice will be benefit versus time. The new quest line is quite spread out in the zone. Moreover, dailies and weeklies in other areas and grinding for stronghold donations would take precedent over filling up a collections of fish for a title and collection points and a few maps. As I (or the guild I belong to) finish content, I would probably fish, if the maps lead to something unique...special transmutes, special unlock, special quest line with unique titles or rewards (not BiS, but something that sets apart). If the maps just give 6k exp and 50 voninblood...yeah, I won't do it.

checkmatein3 · September 2016

Bug: When traveling in boat mode, stamina is drained. When entering onto land, I have zero stamina. This is even the case if you jump into the water and transform into boat mode, then jump right back onto land, and go back to regular HUD.

shadowgod244 · September 2016

fishing takes far too long and is far to complex i spent 20 minutes and didnt catch a single fish when i finally figured out how i'd ran out of bait and could not get any more to continue mission

kolatmaster · September 2016

Feedback: I honestly can't get the fishing to work... Keeps saying I don't have any more bait. Maybe I messed up the first casting? Not sure... *shrugs*

At least I couldn't get it to work in the circle zone in the water for the "Catch 10 Stone of Fish" quest.

kolatmaster · September 2016

Feedback: I must add the zone is absolutely gorgeous, and I like how some quests give you a better kyhek!

urabask · September 2016

Feedback:

The landing areas need to be more well defined and less cluttered. Some of them can't be entered from one side even though it looks like you should be able to, some of them have small pieces of ice arbitrarily blocking areas where you should be able to enter, and some of them you land and there's no access to quest areas even.

Pathfinding for the quest tracker is really wonky and hard to spot sometimes. Some quests have nothing you need to go on land for yet the path goes through land where you get dismounted (and even get aggro'd by mobs sometimes) for no reason.

beckylunatic · September 2016

The "khyek" apparently comes from the Savage Frontiers sourcebook of 1988, where you also have "Ice Hunters" that are basically the Inuit people, with maybe a smidgen of Sami thrown in. The Ice Hunters are "primitive"... and also apparently the new enemy type that NW players will be facing in this expansion. So... that isn't loaded at all. (Oh my word, the Forgotten Realms wiki even has them migrating from Asia... cough Kara-Tur... over an ice bridge.)

I heard this word as "kayak" when I watched the Twitch stream, and I thought having an actual kayak in the northern sea would be reasonable. The boat doesn't resemble a kayak though, nor does it resemble the description in the original manual. In fact, it's kind of pretty.

Boating: Feels slow at 50%. I didn't get far enough for an improved vessel. Steering seems a bit clunky. Echo of Checkmatein's feelings on awkward transitions.

BUG: loss of basic khyek
The very first thing I tried was throwing away the basic khyek to see if it could be reclaimed in some way. Well, not that I could find. So, if you do that, you're stuck. I guess you're meant to toss the khyek as you get better ones maybe, but hello inventory space, and hello, we still need to go lots of places where we don't require a boat. This item needs to be like the trowels, not by expiring (which sucks), but we should just be able to throw them out and pick them up as needed.

Fishing: I caught some fish and handed in a quest and then... the fish are still in my bag, so I vendor-trashed them? There's a way to curry favour in the campaign by catching fish, but I didn't find how to do that. You guys have said you're aware of how horrible refining is for our inventory, and you want to do better. Well... you just added what? 40+ kinds of fish? And yet another different fishing pole, and I saw you could buy bait. I didn't try throwing out the pole to see if my winter event one would still work. The mechanism was ok (it does say press and hold at the NPC, but not the prompts while you're doing it, I guess). Waiting for a bite was boring (how realistic). Mostly, it's a time-sink in a game that already makes FAR too many conflicting demands on player time.

BUG: fishing drains AP?
After my attempt at fishing, my actions points were empty the next time I was on land. I hadn't cast any dailies, so I think it must have drained from reeling in my fish.

Unknown · September 2016

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whitestarua · September 2016

panderus said:

Fishing:
Is it fun?

Nope. Where is super_mega_legendary_hard_dungeon_for_4k_item_level_with_imbalanced_loot_which_you_can_sell_for_millions_of_AD ?

qexotic · September 2016

panderus said:

Boat travel:
How does sailing around the zone feel?
Does the boat ever not appear while you’re in the water, or appear while you’re on land?

Slow and tedious, even though the scenery is very nice. As we are being forced to travel around in the slowest boats available, the sparkly paths should always, always show the most direct route to the next direction. This is especially true when they keep disappearing altogether (sorry, no specific locations I can give on that, they just vanished). So far, the sparkly path just meanders around in the least direct route as far as I can tell. This is very much in keeping with the rest of the current Mod, so I suppose it is to be expected but at least there I can travel on my 110% speed mount.

panderus said:

Fishing:
Is it clear how to fish?
Is it fun?
Do you feel inclined to seek out active fishing spots? (noticeable by birds flying above and splashes in the water)
Refer to the zone collections page for a list of all the fish and their respective biomes.

Not very clear how this works but I sort of got the hang of it after some trial and error.

Is it fun ? No, not even remotely. I guess that the rewards are similar to the four levels of boons granted when hoard donations are made in Tiamat. I'm not going to enjoy spending a lot of time fishing for possible boons in Tiamat MkII when there are already so many other demands on my time in this game, such as relic hunting and travelling from place to place as slowly as possible !

As the potential rewards seem rather limited, I feel absolutely no inclination to seek out active fishing spots. With the slow moving boat already hampering the rate at which I can travel around in these zones, the last thing I am going to feel inclined to do is make detours to slow things down and delay things even further. Add to that the amount of additional inventory space that would/will be required to carry all the fish around until they can be turned in and I'm afraid that this is already a fail for me. I will not be bothering with it when the mod actually appears on live.

asterdahl · September 2016

Thank you everyone for your continued feedback and bug reports. I'll make sure these get passed along to the team.

checkmatein3 said:
I do not know whether I would actively seek out fishing. It was quite easy to do after I learned how to do it. However, the real choice will be benefit versus time. The new quest line is quite spread out in the zone. Moreover, dailies and weeklies in other areas and grinding for stronghold donations would take precedent over filling up a collections of fish for a title and collection points and a few maps. As I (or the guild I belong to) finish content, I would probably fish, if the maps lead to something unique...special transmutes, special unlock, special quest line with unique titles or rewards (not BiS, but something that sets apart). If the maps just give 6k exp and 50 voninblood...yeah, I won't do it.

Aside from quests there are a couple of reasons to fish that will become clear as more of the module becomes available. Some uncommon fish can be turned into materials that can be sold on the auction house. Those materials are some of what will be required to restore the new relic artifact weapons.

As Beckylunatic also pointed out, you'll be able to gain reputation by turning in fish. Increments of that reputation will allow you to open a special chest in the upcoming trial. In addition, treasure maps gained from fishing reward a wide variety of items, some of which are generally useful and not just related to the new campaign extension.

We'd like everyone to give fishing a try, but it's definitely not an activity that's intended to give thousands of hours of gameplay to everyone. We hope there are a lot of you that will really enjoy relaxing in the Sea of Moving Ice and fishing though, and that for those of you that do enjoy it, that there will be some profit to be made. The variety of fish and the activity of collecting them all is definitely targeted at those who really enjoy fishing.

checkmatein3 said:
Bug: When traveling in boat mode, stamina is drained. When entering onto land, I have zero stamina. This is even the case if you jump into the water and transform into boat mode, then jump right back onto land, and go back to regular HUD.

This is currently a limitation of the system we use to swap out your entire power tray. As Beckylunatic pointed out, the process also eliminates your action points. We'll continue to investigate this, but in the meantime thank you for pointing out that some landing areas feature enemies.

beckylunatic said:
Fishing: I caught some fish and handed in a quest and then... the fish are still in my bag, so I vendor-trashed them? There's a way to curry favour in the campaign by catching fish, but I didn't find how to do that. You guys have said you're aware of how horrible refining is for our inventory, and you want to do better. Well... you just added what? 40+ kinds of fish? And yet another different fishing pole, and I saw you could buy bait. I didn't try throwing out the pole to see if my winter event one would still work.

I believe the bit about using fish to gain favor with the tribes is introduced a bit later on, but I'll make sure the team knows that it may not have been obvious what to do with the fish before then. Although there are around 100 species of fish available to catch, each fishing hole is generally limited to 5-6 unique fish, with only 2-3 of those being common catches.

We don't intend for you to hold onto these fish for long periods. Once you are introduced to the contact who takes fish for reputation, you'll see that we have a new system that allows you to "vendor" your fish for reputation quickly and painlessly, and in any quantity you have on you. So we'd like the play cycle here to be that you fish for a while, hitting a couple of active fishing holes before circling back to the starting island to sell your fish. There are no fish that need to be kept around in your inventory like refinement items.

In regards to rods, you'll need to keep your sport fishing rod. We discussed allowing the use of the winter rod, in the end the team decided against it as it made the whole system of earning and progress with the new sport fishing rods difficult to balance. On the other hand, bait is handled in your riches tab and so you don't have to worry about that taking up space.

beckylunatic · September 2016

asterdahl said:
In regards to rods, you'll need to keep your sport fishing rod.

I'm not keen on this, unless it can be discarded and replaced at will.

Every time you make content that requires a tool, you are occupying one inventory slot, often on a permanent basis. We must have our black ice pick (normal or upgraded to epic), some form of trowel (some are consumable, but it's permanent if you get the epic one), a khyek (permanent unless made more like trowels), and now a sport fishing rod (permanent, but also discardable right now). Also our winter fishing rod if we're into that.

I'm not opposed to having the collection of tools and activities they support (I'm probably the type to like the new fishing if it didn't make me feel anxious that I really *should* be doing something else), and different qualities among them, but there's some merit to the accusation of being "inventory bullies".

torontodave · September 2016

or just give us an extra bag slot. or two.

beckylunatic · September 2016

torontodave said:
or just give us an extra bag slot. or two.

"Buy more bag space" is not what I'd call a principle of enjoyable game design, particularly since they also made the decision that bags you've upgraded from cannot be given to alts as hand-me-downs (bind to account... bind to account), but the gameplay-earned and account-unlocked bags available have already exceeded the number of slots provided, so there would be some relief to be had there even without the pressure of making more cash shop purchases.

Upgrading a Zen bag currently still occupies an inventory slot, and even if a way to discard them is introduced, that's going to be something that pushes my anger buttons. I didn't pay Cryptic ten bucks for a greater bag for the privilege of throwing it away a year or two later. That's not how I roll.

imperiousshini · October 2016

First Impression:
Fishing is very funny and relaxing, though once i headed to the shore i found my inventory being fulled in fish and i couldn't get any loot? is there a special reason why the fish don't gather in a bucket and each one takes a slot for it's own?

Unknown · October 2016

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beckylunatic · October 2016

revjimjones said:
How do you do the fishing the help tips are not helpful and there is no Tool Tip for it anywhere that i can find?

The NPC who gave you your boat has a full explanation.

You might be missing the press and hold a key to play your fish. It's like combat moves that you need to hold to charge.

meirami · October 2016

I think fishing is a fun addition, but could we please get a new inventory tab for quest items? Just looking at the collections there are 91 different kinds of sea life available to catch, regardless of how often we can go turn in those fish.

Also, the explanations (that yellow, glowy box near my power tray) of what I had to press and for how long disappeared before I had the chance to read them. The game shuffled through all 3-4 boxes in less than two seconds, probably because my character was actively moving. I would like it if the boxes stayed a bit longer.

bitt3rnightmar3 · October 2016

Boat travel:

How does sailing around the zone feel? Okay.. I guess. Sometimes it's hard to maneuver around objects while in the water.
Does the boat ever not appear while you’re in the water, or appear while you’re on land?There is weird clipping on the boat around some objects while transitioning from water/land. Also- Why does my augment companion appear in the water? My cat isn't supposed to be in the water Also- why are my feet hanging out the bottom of the boat?

Fishing:

Is it clear how to fish?No, It's not clear immediately how to fish. I did not realize I had to hold the button down to fish- I had to ask some friends what they did. During the tutorial part I apparently screwed up and it continued on asking me to press buttons I could not press. Also- How do I know how much bait I have or If I need to rehook a line?I'm pretty confused by the entire experience.
Is it fun?Not remotely. I really think this is my new least favorite thing in the game. My old least favorite thing was doing heroic encounters. Now it's doing heroic encounters while fishing. Also- If these fish take up space in my bag, I don't have any room for them. I'm too busy holding 3 different kinds of binding on RP and fashion Items I have no where to put.
Do you feel inclined to seek out active fishing spots? (noticeable by birds flying above and splashes in the water)I can't see anything like that in the water. My graphics must be turned down so low that it's too far away in the terrain to see those things.

flyingleon · October 2016

Boat travel: Is the boat supposed to be partially under the water? Both the boat and the characters are partially in the water, which is not natural. Besides that I think the general feel of the boat travel is OK.

Unknown · October 2016

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Unknown · October 2016

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Unknown · October 2016

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kacezet · October 2016

BUG: Using potion while on a khyek cancels the boat visuals leaving character running on the water :X

beckylunatic · October 2016

If your hook says it needs bait, press Tab. Even if you don't have any special bait, this is required every 3 casts, iirc.

Unknown · October 2016

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beckylunatic · October 2016

The tips that popped up when I was prompted to try fishing said press Tab (or it might have been another key, because we are now talking about something I did days ago and not since) to bait the hook. When the game informed me I needed to bait the hook again, I pressed the same key again, and lo and behold found my hook to be baited.

Seemed pretty intuitive to me.

Official Feedback: Boat Travel and Fishing

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