Fishing Adjustments 11/13/12

Good morning,

Sorry to keep you all waiting on the new fishing adjustments. I’m sure you’ve heard this quite often, but the Development Team really is quite busy and they haven’t had much time to focus on fishing specific changes. The following adjustments are what we are considering at the moment (…and please keep in mind this is very rough). Nevertheless, we would like to update you on the current status. Because we are in the preliminary stage, nothing is definite at the moment. In addition, a time has not been decided as to when we will be moving full steam ahead. With that said, please check out what we have planned:

Basic Outline

• For the reeling in mechanics, we do not plan on completely removing it but we are going to make adjustments.
  

• As mentioned in my earlier post, we plan on leaving reeling mechanics itself as a challenge to those with insufficient skills.
  

• Fishing skills will have a bigger impact on results compared to the current system. In addition, the reeling in mechanics will be simplified as much as possible.
  

• If your fishing skill is high, you can pull up a fish without having to reel in at all! (Similar to goldfish scooping featured in the past Sunbreeze Festivals.)
  

• For the reel in mechanics, we will try to make it so there is minimal difference between clients regardless of their specifications.

Major changes

Reeling Entry commands
Previously, players were able to reduce their catch’s HP by half when they continued to enter commands in the opposite direction that their rod was pulled towards. However, since many users have pointed out that continuing to enter commands highlights the user’s machine specs rather than game-playing skills, we plan to change this function to “enter the command once” and you will be able to achieve the same results as the current multiple inputs.

In this case, if the command entry is successful, the catch’s HP can be reduced greatly based on fishing skills and rod quality. However, if entry fails, the catch will recover a bit of HP. We are looking into an effect in which the catch’s recovery rate is reduced based on fishing skill. Once the command is entered, regardless of whether it fails or succeeds, the rod will pull. In other words, repeating the command will do nothing.

Rod Animations
We will also make adjustments to the rod movement animations. The main situations we are looking to improve are when the rod is leaning far in either direction but does not stay for a long enough time for the user to enter a command. We will try to adjust this mechanic so you will have enough time to enter your desired commands.

Regen and DoT of catch based on fishing skill
Another idea we have is to implement a combo bonus type effect. (i.e. Reduce the catch’s HP further, reducing the fish’s HP over time, make the catch unable to flee, etc.) These effects will be granted when the user is able to successfully respond to the movements of the rod consecutively. Please keep in mind that this is not set in stone, but we thought this would be an interesting addition.

<table width="500" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1" align="center" class="ta01"><tr valign="middle" align="center" class="th01"><td width="25%" align="center" class="th01" bgcolor="#a8d0d7">Skill Rate Comparison</td><td width="25%" align="center" class="th01" bgcolor="#a8d0d7">Catch＞User</td><td width="25%" align="center" class="th01" bgcolor="#a8d0d7">Catch＝User</td><td width="25%" align="center" class="th01" bgcolor="#a8d0d7">Catch＜User</tr><tr valign="middle" align="center" class="td01"><td bgcolor="#a8d0d7">Current</td><td bgcolor="#eaf2f3">Regen</td><td bgcolor="#eaf2f3">No Change</td><td bgcolor="#eaf2f3">DoT</td></tr><tr valign="middle" align="center" class="td01"><td bgcolor="#a8d0d7">New</td><td bgcolor="#f5fafb">Regen</td><td bgcolor="#f5fafb">DoT</td><td bgcolor="#f5fafb">Stronger DoT</td></tr></table>

[INDENT]Basically, if the user’s fishing skill value is greater than or equal to the catch’s fishing resistance skill value, the catch’s HP will decrease. As our plan is to make the effects more noticeable than they are currently, as soon as the user’s fishing skill value matches the catch’s fishing resistance skill value, a DoT will be applied to the catch, and from there, the higher the user’s fishing skill value, the stronger the DoT applied.

For example, if a user with a fishing skill of 100 catches a carp with very low fishing resistance skill value, then the catch’s HP will decrease rapidly even without any rod commands due to the high DoT effect. This aspect closely resembles the initial features for the fishing system.

Oppositely, if a user with a fishing skill of 0 catches a fish with a high fishing resistance skill value, such as a bastore bream or black sole, the catch’s HP will recover rapidly due to the high regen effect. This aspect resembles the current features for the fishing system.

We will determine the detailed mechanics based on testing results. Of course we will implement the changes on the test server for all of you to try out, as well.
[/INDENT]

Other changes

High Priority Adjustment[INDENT]This is a feature that has already been implemented, but it is currently not based on any skill values. With the current changes, we plan on allowing for higher critical rates based on the user having higher fishing skill values than the catch. We also think it may be okay to add additional effects, such as immunity to fishing fatigue.[/INDENT]

Fishing fatigue
[INDENT]Currently, once a certain number of fish are caught, the user cannot catch any more fish for the rest of the day.
This feature was first implemented to combat RMT activity. If we simply take out this feature, RMT activity may increase greatly. As such, instead of removing it, we plan on implementing conditions that can be met to increase the fishing cap.

• Successfully caught a fish after critical
  

• Usable items to recover fishing fatigue
  

• Catches that recover fishing fatigue after caught

The above are nothing but suggestions, but we would like to consider a feature that recovers users’ fishing fatigue as a reward.
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Fishing ring effects

Regarding fishing rings, their numerical values for calculation may be adjusted based on the changes to the system.

However, it seems that the effects for most can be carried on as is, so we believe that users will be able to continue to use these items for similar purposes.
For now, we are looking at the above ideas as the main framework for our revamp.
Once we develop these ideas further and finalize the features, we will begin implementation. However, we would like to take our time to determine the optimal settings for reeling in time length and success determination elements.
In addition, we are also considering variables such as weather, time, and age.

P.S.

This applies to all of our posts, but just because there are aspects that have not been mentioned, it does not mean that we will not make adjustments to those aspects. If there are things that you have noticed, we will be able to look into them if you bring them to our attention.

Also, please understand that it would be very difficult to implement all of the aspects mentioned above all at once, so we would appreciate it if you would look forward to these improvements with patience.