Fishing success messages.

[eqdruid76]

Rather than getting the message "You caught a fresh fish!" when you do so, you get the same "You caught...something..." that you do when you land a shoe, fish scale or knife.

[frefaln]

Heck, I just got level 29 in fishing and have caught a grand total of one (1) fish. Therefore, I didn't even notice the success message :(

I don't remember fishing success being that rare. Known issue?

[mmiles8]

It's a bug with fishing. I was talking with frefaln about it today in a group, but hadn't posted it yet.

"You caught... something" can result in catching a fish, it's one of the possibilities (fish scale, tattered cloth sandal, rusty dagger, plain old fish).

Fishing skill is decreasing the chance of catching nothing, breaking your fishing pole, or losing your bait, but not increasing the chance of catching a fish explicitly. So the message you're getting is correct, the problem lies a bit deeper.

What's the difference? It will result in disproportionately low numbers of fresh fish relative to your fishing skill, and may make it impossible to catch a zone specific fish.

[astarothel]

It's actually been noted in a couple places before now.

I get an okay amount of fish and zone specifics at 145, however the junk to fish ratio is probably off, especially at the lower skill end. I think my first actual fish was at like 30 fishing skill :rolleyes:

[maximum]

http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34156

[kaev]

You did get "You have caught fresh fish!" on about 1 in 5 successes back in the day. You could also get fresh fish with the "...something" message, but I do miss the explicit fresh fish message. Or I did miss it, haven't bothered with any fishing since I quit blacksmithing.

[nilbog]

I looked for a few but couldn't find any source prior to 2002 for the 'You caught $itemname!'. Was the message the same in classic era, or added with Luclin?

It shouldn't be very complicated to correct fishing, but there are some details needed.

[Dolalin]

I did string extracts direct from the eqgame.exe files in the www.everquest.com.tw patch zips. They have many fishing messages.

https://github.com/dbsanfte/eq-archives/blob/0545f6800a94ea1a3be6141c7d46494c9721315f/eq_str/eqgame.exe.2000.03.21.str.txt#L377

If you move into the parent folder they are sorted by date. Just CTRL-F and search for 'fish'.

I don't see any "you caught $item!" in the latest string file I have in the repo, which is April 2001.

[Dolalin]

I see references to this "You caught a fish!" message in-era, so I'm gonna guess it was server-side.

2001:

https://web.archive.org/web/20010222062632/http://www.eqworlds.com/cgi-bin/framed/1750/fishing.htm (warning: redirect javascript on the page)

https://web.archive.org/web/20010617181331/http://www.everlore.com/items/items.asp?mode=show&IID=167653

Dec 2000:

https://web.archive.org/web/20040531010913/http://vnboards.ign.com:80/EQ_Trade_Skill_Board/b5010/5363655/?26

April 2000:



MESSAGES AND RESULTS
This catagory tells you all the possible messages and results that will happen while you fish.
"You cast your line"-This is the basic first message that results when ever you push the FISHING button to begin.
"You failed to catch anything"-This is the message you will get most of the time unless your skill is very high, it just means you still have your bait and you need to cast your line again.
"You lost your bait"-This means exactly what it says, you loose 1 piece of bait and get nothing in return don' worry it doesn't happen very often.
"Your fishing pole broke"-This can be a bummer as it means you have to shell out another 2 gold to get a rod, this is pretty rare though, and you will more than make up for money lost here in returns from selling your catch.
"You caught something..."-This message means that you either caught a rusty dagger, a sandle, or fish scales. The great thing about this is that you can make money with these and not even loose your bait. None of them are stackable however.
"You caught a fish!"-This too means exactly what it says, you catch one fish in return for the loss of one piece of bait, a good trade.
"You spill your beer while brining in your line"-Just one of those mood enhancing messages, it does't mean anything and it happens even if you have no alcohol, just enjoy it!
"Your Fishing skill has increased (###)-Like any other skill with practice your skill in fishing increases.

https://web.archive.org/web/20000510235119/http://www.everlore.com/guides.asp?ID=107621

[Dolalin]

Newsgroups have a reference to "caught a fish" message as early as April 1999:


Apr 22, 1999

[click on Fish button]... wait...Didn't catch a fish message
[click on Fish button]... wait...Didn't catch a fish message
[click on Fish button]... wait...Didn't catch a fish message
[click on Fish button]... wait...Didn't catch a fish message
[click on Fish button]... wait...Didn't catch a fish message
[click on Fish button]... wait...Didn't catch a fish message
[click on Fish button]... wait...Caught a fish message

https://groups.google.com/g/alt.games.everquest/c/6DAsZgPHv9A/m/2VoPEA0f3joJ

[nilbog]

Fixed, pending update

-In our timeline, catching a fish, or a zone-specific item other than junk, will result in 'You caught a fish!'.

[Passenger]

Prior to the Nov. 7, 2001 patch

- https://web.archive.org/web/20030118153046/http://pub147.ezboard.com/feqtraderscornerfrm55.showMessage?topicID=176.topi c
Dunthor Warsmith
(10/21/01 10:19:46 pm)
You have caught a fish! er, seaweed...

Hopefully this isn't an ancient post here, but I hear the topic enough on other boards and haven't seen anything similar here, so here goes:

Many people have mocked the message that it says you have caught a "fish" when instead, in the Ocean of Tears, you have caught a non-stacking nodrop inedible bunch of seaweed (for Freeport cultural armor temper). Many have asked why its not the simple "You caught, something..." message instead. I think I know why: when you catch a "fish", a bait is consumed, but when you catch "something", do you not lose your bait. VI thought that, for whatever reason (it was "good enough" of a catch?), you should lose your bait on catching a seaweed, and thus simply added it into the existing structure - lose bait=fish. Thus, while the messages don't mesh perfectly, the mechanics do, or at least they seem to.

So, maybe something like this:

Fish Table
You have caught a fish! (bait consumed)
-----------------------
- Fresh Fish
- <Zone-specific Fish>
- Saltwater Seaweed

Junk Table
You caught, something... (no bait consumed)
-----------------------------
- Fish Scales
- Rusty Dagger
- Tattered Cloth Sandal

After the Nov. 7, 2001 patch

- https://web.archive.org/web/20020128020604/http://pub13.ezboard.com/feqtraderscornerfrm55.showMessage?topicID=189.topi c
Cantatus
(11/8/01 11:52:49 am)
Unannounced change to fishing

Now whenever you fish up a fish, you get the message:
"You have caught Fresh Fish!" instead of "You have caught a fish!" I suppose it is like foraging now so that you don't have to look at every item to find out what it is.

On another note about the fishing changes in general, I fished in Felwithe last week and every I caught out of 40 was a Koada Cichlid. Today I fished 20 times and only caught Fresh Fish. Not sure if they removed Koada Cichlids or if this is just part of the change.
Zacatac
(11/9/01 12:22:12 pm)
Re: Unannounced change to fishing

I believe the message relates to your skill level.

Often it would tell me exactly what I caught, but not always.

I got a "You have caught a rusty dagger" message, then later got a "you have caught something. . ." message on another rusty dagger.

So I think the message is like a skill roll of some sort. At 200 skill, you will get the correct identification 95% of the time. At lower skills, you will see the message less.

my 2cp
Cantatus
(11/9/01 2:43:03 pm)
Re: Unannounced change to fishing

Nah, I got the message every single time I caught a fish. And my skill only changed 3 points (from like 110 to 113) between last patch and this patch. I suppose others will need to confirm it though since I am not an avid fisherman.
Baladarr
(11/9/01 4:23:16 pm)
Re: Unannounced change to fishing

No one seems to have mentioned the other change.

It used to be when you caught something... and got a dagger or sandal or scales you didnt lose your bait. Now if you watch, everytime you catch something and it tells you what you catch, you lose your bait.
mjgreenjr
(11/13/01 7:02:00 am)
Re: Unannounced change to fishing

Actually, you don't loose bait when you catch "something..." You only loose bait when you catch "Rusty Dagger" or "Fish Scales". For some reason, when what you catch is identified you use a bait.

- https://web.archive.org/web/20040117134919/http://pub147.ezboard.com/feqtraderscornerfrm55.showMessage?topicID=188.topi c
Tinkerten Iktomi
(11/8/01 10:58 am)
Bait going fast

After the patch on 11/7, I noticed that when fishing that with every catch of an Item I’d lose or rather use up some bait.

I know for sure that I lost bait when I caught:

a rusty dagger
a fish scale
a torn silk sandal
saltwater seaweed
as well as whatever fish I caught

the zones I fished in:

Lake Rath
Tox
Butcher Block
OOT

I did a /bug report but it was to close to the servers going down that I don’t think they will catch it.

- https://mboards.eqtraders.com/eq/forum/tradeskills/fishing/856-has-anyone-ever-asked-a-dev
Balthozzar
01-02-2003, 11:38 PM

Fishing garbage bug

The sandals, rusties, and fish scales are caught in such quantity because of a bug in the fishing tables that I've been /bug reporting for almost a year. The garbage catches appear to be have been inserted into the table for successful catches about the same time that they made adjustments to the fishing and foraging tables before Luclin was released. It was at this time that the successful catch message was changed to indicate exactly what you caught instead of just 'You have caught a fresh fish!' for everything. Note that you get the message, 'You have caught a Rusty Dagger!', but you also will get the 'You have caught . . . something.' message as well. The latter being much more rare for those with high skill.

The fact that this occurs even in Plane of Knowledge seems to indicate that this is a bug with the global fishing tables (if there is such a thing, and they don't simply copy/paste between zones). This tells me that it should be relatively easy to fix. I can tell you, that with over 180 skill, I don't particularly like catching more junk than real fish. If the waters of Norrath, the Planes, and Luclin were really that polluted, there wouldn't be any living fish, would there?

Maybe something like this:

Fish Table
You have caught a ${ITEM_NAME}! (bait consumed)
-----------------------
- Fresh Fish
- <Zone-specific Fish>
- Saltwater Seaweed
- Fish Scales
- Rusty Dagger
- Tattered Cloth Sandal

Junk Table
You caught, something... (no bait consumed)
-----------------------------
- Fish Scales
- Rusty Dagger
- Tattered Cloth Sandal

The salt in the wound is that, because higher fishing skill would increase the chance of pulling from the "Fish Table" (which now included junk), high-skilled fishers were still getting junk and that junk was, more often than not, consuming bait.

[Passenger]

I forgot to mention... On P99, every item caught consumes bait. Even after the Nov. 7 patch, there was a chance for junk to not consume bait, depending on what table it was pulled from.

[Jimjam]

Have we considered the fish we are catching could be level 1 enchanters casting minor illusion, hence why we lose bait when catching daggers and so on - we are actually catching a fish disguised as a dagger!