Fishing in a 3d videogame not built around fishing

[Venusgate]

When fishing comes to VS, I figure there are two ways developers always go: 

1. Using Primitive Survival method: a body of water has a hidden pool of fish/junk and catches are weighted randoms.

2. Being able to see which fish you aim to catch ahead of time, and purposefully going after them.

Given our teaser shows a boot being fished up, yet VS has physical fish in the water, it's unclear which direction the devs will end up going in the long run (though there may be more hay been made in the chats that I don't know about)

Assuming the former allows for more time to code a deeper system, or frees up coders for other facets, what's your preference?

[Teh Pizza Lady]

visible? yes

is it practical? dunno

Would Tyron and co pull it off if they could? yes.

however given that the feature is well under way in development, I think it's safe to wager that I have no idea why you started this poll. XD

[Venusgate]

7 minutes ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

I have no idea why you started this poll

Well, development isn't always a strait line, and there's precedent for systems changing around within VS.

And it's something I've always been kind of curious of how people view fishing in 3d games. Given there is currently multiple interpretations of fishing within VS (violent salmon tackling and passive fish trapping in mods), it's fertile ground for opinions.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

42 minutes ago, Venusgate said:

it's fertile ground for opinions.

That I can agree on! Here's hoping Tyron and co. implement the design I want!

[Crabsoft]

If I see fish in the water, I'm going to want to just stab them with the spear. I think what's most important is maintaining a consistent resolution/level of abstraction throughout the game. Most things that I see in Vintage Story can be interacted with directly and that would be my expectation here. Historically, I've enjoyed games that do a sort of visual indicator that a place is a good fishing spot and then the rest is mental model. Fish trapping is boring and lame and I want fishing to be an activity to engage in.

Not a helpful thing to say, but most things should be exactly as detailed as they are important to the overall system of features that make the game more than a tech demo. Imagine if Super Mario Bros had Archeage's fishing minigame. It would be super cool but does it enhance the actual game that we're playing?

[Heart_Afire]

So, what I would actually like to see is a mixture of the two, along with a few other bits and bobs thrown in later (Things like ocean netting, for example).

1) I like the idea of fish traps like in Primitive Survival, but what I think they'd be better suited for is catching multiple small fish that the player then has to process into usable food. Sure, you can cook a big bluegill over the fire, but panfish like that are often better served as fish flakes added into something like a gumbo. And the joy of traps is that when properly made the fish actually can stay alive in them for quite some time, depending on size.

So for these what I would do is have the traps select from a variety of random drops with a low chance of catching a bigger fish, with the most common catches being things like shellfish, small panfish, and occasionally a piece of weird junk like a cattail root.

2) In terms of actual angling, with a rod and reel, that's where I would want to actually see the models of the bigger fish I would be angling for. Complete with a proper little technique that must be done in order to hook and catch the fish. In return, though, I would want these fish to be bigger, providing multiple pieces of meat, bones, etc. Basically give the player a proper reward for going into the trickier setup.

3) As one final addition, I would also add the presence of aquatic dangers to preclude Noodling. Nothing crazy dangerous like a bear, but enough to give a player pause. An Alligator Snapping Turtle or a Water Snake would do the trick, I think. Or a ginormous catfish, one whose drops are...lackluster.

 

[ifoz]

From what Tyron has said on the Discord, I think the current plan is to have the real fish mobs move toward your lure, at which point they'll bite and you can reel them in. I think he also mentioned something about how if somewhere has no fish mobs/you fished them all up, you could still catch fish but with the drops halved. I guess just getting phantom bites and then reeling them in like some other games do.

He was also talking about a fish population map system, so you could overfish an area and have the chances to find/catch anything there reduced. I don't know much about that or how it'll be implemented though.

[EDIT] There was also talk of taxidermy (so you can display your catches), which means the fish will be real items you can hold rather than the current way fish work which results in players having to butcher them at the bottom of a lake. 

Edited December 13, 2025 by ifoz

[ifoz]

1 hour ago, Crabsoft said:

If I see fish in the water, I'm going to want to just stab them with the spear.

There was a gif posted in the Discord devlog a while ago showing fish being able to slip away from melee hits, though I assume they'll still have some leniency to allow spear throwing if you're skilled enough. I assume that is just to encourage using an actual fishing rod instead of just killing the fish with your bare hands lol

[Venusgate]

40 minutes ago, ifoz said:

I assume that is just to encourage using an actual fishing rod instead of just killing the fish with your bare hands lol

I would like to retain the ability to melee fish, but making them faster and slippier would make plenty of sense. Like, if it took you an ingame hour to catch a fish with melee that would be caught in the same amount of time by just sitting and angling, I think that'd be plenty justified (as long as the calorie/hr is justified)

[Venusgate]

2 hours ago, Crabsoft said:

most things should be exactly as detailed as they are important to the overall system of features that make the game more than a tech demo

I would say fishing is more important to an immersive survival simulator than a platformer, though, no? The question is more: is having a more tactile system worth it for VS than your standard bolt-on fishing minigame?
 

  

2 hours ago, Heart_Afire said:

As one final addition, I would also add the presence of aquatic dangers to preclude Noodling. Nothing crazy dangerous like a bear, but enough to give a player pause. An Alligator Snapping Turtle or a Water Snake would do the trick, I think. Or a ginormous catfish, one whose drops are...lackluster.

It could just be that... ahem...'manual' fishing becomes time and effort inefficient. If I spend less effort for the same or better effect, because I invested in rod and bait, then that would be in line with a lot of the other progression systems of VS.

Edited December 13, 2025 by Venusgate

[Myo]

Por que los dos? 

Id love it to be like how it is in the Animal Crossing games. You can tell that a fish is in the water, and maybe make some inferences on what fish it is by the size of the shadow and where it is, how it generally acts. And then you put the reel out to try and catch it, you can keep guessing at what fish it is by the nibble counts and then: "random" fish is caught whee.

[Broccoli Clock]

Would I love a properly implemented fishing system that takes in time of year, time of day, the relevant weather (and shade), the water type, currents, etc...?

Yes, of course, everyone would, even if you'd never utilise it fully.

Would I dislike a very simple "other block game" style, where you tediously click the mouse button every 20 seconds or so with what you get based on RNG rather than any immersive factor?

Yes, I would really dislike that. Others may be happy, but to me it would see worse than not implementing it at all.

 

 

What will it be? Sadly for me, it's going to lean towards the latter of these two, and I just hope that it move far enough away that it's not just a direct copy of the other game. Ultimately though, even if it's entirely basic, if they keep the hand catching fish mechanic then I'll just stick to that.

[Crabsoft]

A simulator is exactly what I'm worried about. Currently, Vintage Story is a fun game with expert use of abstraction to capture the feeling of what people imagine an activity would be like, while using the tedious parts to set pacing. Each thing is just involved enough that the player has to engage with it as an activity but isn't majorly hassled by it. The rest of this genre is a wasteland of promising games that turned tech demo/simulator. If farming had 9000 parameters or tools degraded at a realistic rate, the game would be lesser for it.

[Broccoli Clock]

48 minutes ago, Crabsoft said:

A simulator is exactly what I'm worried about. Currently, Vintage Story is a fun game with expert use of abstraction to capture the feeling of what people imagine an activity would be like, while using the tedious parts to set pacing. Each thing is just involved enough that the player has to engage with it as an activity but isn't majorly hassled by it. 

I get where you are coming from. If we take pottery for example, the devs made a choice for us to shape it manually. They could have reduced user interaction by removing the shaping functionality, and the shape magically appearing once you select it from the available shape menu. On the flip side, they did include some rudimentary tools such as changing the amount of clay you add, as well as a copy/paste option. We sort of have a middle ground, a little bit grindy but some QoL add in. I feel that's probably the sort of level they should aim for fishing to keep it consistent in the game. Too simple and it'll lose it's charm, and likely become OP, too complex and you can lose those like you who feel it's a bit overkill (and those players who are time poor).

Introducing variables such as a % increase of catching fish while it's raining I don't think creates complexity, or the amount of grind involved, but it does add a touch of realism.

Edited December 13, 2025 by Broccoli Clock
...spelling and grammar because I am an illiterate fool!

[Tabbot95]

I would tolerate fishing pole random fishing; wouldn't be blown away by it but I'd understand it as a result of the limitations created by having 1m³ blocks be the basis for everything;

that said if they can make rivers work, (and that's a very big if), It would be nice to see fish having a proper ecosystem.

[LadyWYT]

12 hours ago, Heart_Afire said:

3) As one final addition, I would also add the presence of aquatic dangers to preclude Noodling. Nothing crazy dangerous like a bear, but enough to give a player pause. An Alligator Snapping Turtle or a Water Snake would do the trick, I think. Or a ginormous catfish, one whose drops are...lackluster.

I know I mentioned noodling a while back mostly as a joke, BUT...if it was actually implemented as a way to fish I don't think this would be a downside.  On the contrary, it makes picking Blackguard and messing around with the local wildlife a lot more interesting!

10 hours ago, ifoz said:

He was also talking about a fish population map system, so you could overfish an area and have the chances to find/catch anything there reduced. I don't know much about that or how it'll be implemented though.

This sounds like a good compromise. I'd like to see the visible fish be actually caught, which also means I'd like to see a lot more fish populating the water as what we have right now is just...sad. That being said, I do think that a "random catch" pool with a lower catch chance also makes sense to include, so that fishing is still viable even if the player can't see any fish.

I'm not sure how feasible it would be to include in the code, but perhaps a check for the size of the water body being fished in? That way the player cannot just bucket a puddle of water into their house and get free food from that(which is easily done in the other block game).

[Bruno Willis]

58 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

This sounds like a good compromise. I'd like to see the visible fish be actually caught, which also means I'd like to see a lot more fish populating the water as what we have right now is just...sad. That being said, I do think that a "random catch" pool with a lower catch chance also makes sense to include, so that fishing is still viable even if the player can't see any fish.

I'm not sure how feasible it would be to include in the code, but perhaps a check for the size of the water body being fished in? That way the player cannot just bucket a puddle of water into their house and get free food from that(which is easily done in the other block game).

I feel like increasing the number of fish in pools would require the pools to feel more like viable habitats. I'd like the devs to add tangles of deadwood in the edges of pools, and overhangs (even if only visual) to the shore blocks, basically adding places where fish might hide. 

Personally I'm not keen on rod fishing of any sort being added to VS. It feels like a modern fishing system, when VS feels more in line with pre-industrial tech. Spear fishing, noodling, fish traps, crayfish pots, and nets over the sides of fishing boats, are my preferred fishing mechanics. I see rod fishing as just chasing what other games do instead of following VS's unique flavor.  

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Bruno Willis said:

Personally I'm not keen on rod fishing of any sort being added to VS. It feels like a modern fishing system, when VS feels more in line with pre-industrial tech.

I don't know about that. Fishing rods aren't really a complicated concept--all one needs is a hook, a string, and a flexible stick. Fishing rods with reels seem to be a more modern concept, but just the basic rod itself goes back to ancient times.

http://www.fishingmuseum.org.uk/rods_overview.html

1 hour ago, Bruno Willis said:

Spear fishing, noodling, fish traps, crayfish pots, and nets over the sides of fishing boats, are my preferred fishing mechanics. I see rod fishing as just chasing what other games do instead of following VS's unique flavor.  

Which is fair, and I do think at least some of those options should be available in the game in addition to a fishing rod. I think the idea could be taken further by making different methods preferable for catching specific types of fish/aquatic life(like a crayfish pot if you want crayfish). That not only helps Vintage Story fishing stand out from other titles, but also gives the player a range of options to use, as well as reasons to vary their fishing strategy instead of sticking to just one.

[Venusgate]

32 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

(like a crayfish pot if you want crayfish)

Let me polish a rust gear and use it as crayfish 'tackle' 

[ComeAves]

Short answer: Whichever gets us fishing with a rod faster. GIVE ME FISHING!

I like the way the Other Block Game handles it, is there an actual fish mob near the bait? priorize that. The actual fish mob goes to the bait with higher change of a catch. If not, then just add some particles and if you do succeed the erm minigame or whatever, then get a fish item.

[Michaloid]

Tyron already said that the game will have a hybrid system. With a bait, you fish in water with fish, and they'll bite it, but if there's no fish, you can fish anyway, but the value of the drops will be halved. So if a normal fish is 100 sat, then a MC fish will be 50 sat instead.

I'm not sure if there'll be more, but we'll see.

[Heart_Afire]

On 12/13/2025 at 2:21 PM, LadyWYT said:

I know I mentioned noodling a while back mostly as a joke, BUT...if it was actually implemented as a way to fish I don't think this would be a downside.  On the contrary, it makes picking Blackguard and messing around with the local wildlife a lot more interesting!

Local Blackguard found Dead

Our top story tonight, LadyWYT, a local blackguard, was tragically found dead today at the bottom of a local lake. She was found with one arm stuffed into a crevasse, and the autopsy indicated death by drowning. Her bag with her was found to contain cooked food, an eyepatch, and multiple types of fish, all with spear wounds on their bodies.

Local Guard reports conclude that LadyWYT died while diving into the lake to catch fish, rather than using a trap or pole like a sane person. Apparently her arm got stuck when she jammed it into the crevasse beneath the log.

[Spoiler Character], upon hearing the sad news, was quoted as sighing before saying: "Seraphs, use your noodle, and don't noodle."

 

(This came to me after reading your comment, I had to write it out)