How should fishing be changed for FFXIV: ARR 2.0The other day I was browsing the Lodestone forum and came across a question about grade 6 areas in FFXIV 2.0
Now, no one knows what will happen or whether or not grade 6 will be included but it got me thinking... what would I add or change if I had a say in the matter?
First of all I would hope that grade 6 is included but at the same time I don't really like the concept of grades. I think it is restricting. The thing is that all the areas have a grade and no matter what, you know that at a certain level range you will need to go here no matter what class you are currently playing. I know that there are different areas at same grade so you have something to choose from but essentially all classes need to go the same places. And this in not only true for DoL but also for DoW/DoM. So if I am level 10ish I can go to certain areas no matter what class I am and if I am level 20ish I should go to another set of areas etc.
Now since the achievements for gathering is not going away we can be pretty certain that the grade system is going to be in 2.0 but wouldn't it be awesome if something other than the grade of the area had a say in the matter of where you should go and you had more options?
In FFXI you got (get?) XP based on what you caught... and the fish you could catch was based on your level. What this meant was that a high level fisher could sometimes be found in the same area as low level fishers, they would just catch other fish. This would then be based on the type of rod or bait the fishers would use. If a low level fisher tried to use the same gear as the high level fisher in order to catch those high level fish it would be pretty hard and not worth his time.
I would like to see something like this implemented in FFXIV. It was always awesome in FFXI that you knew something was down there but you just didn't know what it was as you would not be able to catch it until your level was higher. Of course you could find the info online but you would still be uncertain of what was actually on the line.
Another aspect of FFXI that I miss is the matter of size of the fish. In FFXI you would need to use certain rods to catch certain fish as some poles were meant for large fish and some were meant for small fish. If you tried to catch a small fish with a rod meant for large fish you would just fail and vice versa.
I am not saying that I want fishing in FFXIV to be like it was in FFXI but I really think they could make it a lot more feature-rich. Bait doesn't really matter in FFXIV. I know that certain fish prefer certain bait and salt water and fresh water will need different types of bait but there is not all that much to think about. I would love it if some fish just wouldn't bit on certain lures. This is also a great way to filter what you are trying to catch as you could go to a certain area with a certain bait/rod combination and know that you would only get one or two types of fish.
As fishing in FFXIV is today you have the depth gauge that will help you filter the fish a little but you are certainly not going to be able to target one specific fish.
This would also result in a lot more bait being used instead of lures. I don't know how much bait is really used but I have almost always used lures as they aren't used when a fish is caught and they are almost as efficient. Crafters would actually start making bait and a market that is not very used today could be expanded.
But what would you like to see implemented? I have mainly referenced FFXI in the things I would like to see but maybe you have some original ideas or maybe something you thought worked great in other games.
(I am going to make a thread about mining and botany the coming days as well
).