Project 1999 - Game Mechanics: Fishing success messages.

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- - Game Mechanics: Fishing success messages. (/forums/showthread.php?t=8714)

Fishing success messages.

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.

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?

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.

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:

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.

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.

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-archi...1.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.

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/20010222...50/fishing.htm (warning: redirect javascript on the page)

https://web.archive.org/web/20010617...how&IID=167653

Dec 2000:

https://web.archive.org/web/20040531...10/5363655/?26

April 2000:

Quote:

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/20000510....asp?ID=107621

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

Quote:

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.game...m/2VoPEA0f3joJ