Hello,

So, the fishing profession is largely at odds with the other professions, namely because everything else you can set up, and then leave it and come back whenever it is you remember to wander by once more. Fishing, however, requires 60 seconds of dedicated attention. You can hire Koda for an hour, in which they capture ~15 fish (I use 'em once a day to complete the fishing activity lol) but it really isn't the same as the other professions.

My suggestion is to add an alternative - I don't want to take away the active participation of fishing for those that enjoy it, but I want to make a suggestion for other's like myself that really struggle with focusing for a full 60 seconds. Honestly, I have to work myself up to it mentally, and then pray I can focus for that entire time. It's an ordeal.

My suggestion: Set a net.

Fishing recovery time is 30 minutes per trip, so I say that a net should take 45 minutes to capture the full xp of fish (so, 13items/26xp in Backwoods Brook). It will capture the 13 items like you could fish up with the rod, so unlike Koda who provides ~15+ fish in an hour, you *might* get 7 fish in 45 minutes, along with half the random junk that you fish up with a rod lol that would take your items up to 13 items. The extra 15 minutes is because you're guaranteed of getting the full XP, compared to the rod, where you gotta make sure to click on all the right spots within the few seconds, and while I'm usually personally lucky enough to get them all, I also often miss 1-3 items too. That said, I would personally prefer it was a 30 minute set up, but I want to be fair across the board with my suggestion :)

I really want to level my fishing up as much as my other professions, which I find much easier to do, because I can get them started, and then wander off to do whatever, come back, collect, and set them up again.

Why isn't fishing like this by default ;__;

Support!
I had a suggestion involving Fishing Nets too - https://www.lorwolf.com/Forum/View?id=6022

But it involved a bit more work with a crafting system so this might be an easier route.

I am not sure if it is level related or just a bit of confusion, but whenever I hire Koda she always catches 25+ fish for me. To be fair, you only get 1 xp when doing it through her, rather than the 2xp you get per reel in if you do it manually. But I did want to point that out, you get quite a bit of fish, just not as many xp.

That being said, I'm not quite sure if just having another automatic way of fishing is really the solution here.. Things that I could support however to help make leveling up a tad easier:

1. Higher level fish (e.g. fish in higher level areas) award more xp (both when doing it manually and when using Koda)

2. Levelling up rewards you an extra ripple every so often, regardless of in what area you are fishing. (so perhaps every 5 levels you get a +1 ripple on top of whatever the basic amount is)

3. Having different services; a 1-hour service, a 3-hour service, a 6-hour service. Something like that. Or perhaps even more preferable what Poe suggested in their awesome suggestion, Make it so that hiring Koda involve nets that, depending on the quality, yields more fish. Without any nets, using Koda's basic net, you get whatever you get now, like with the wheels and pickaxe with mining, but applying higher level nets yields more.

A final sidenote; I've noticed that Koda only ever catches fish from the highest level area you've unlocked. At the moment I don't mind as much as guppies are utterly useless and I've already unlocked the next area, but should guppies get a recipe too (and they really should) I think you should be able to choose whichever area Koda is going to fish in.

I support anything that improves the fishing experience

I'm sorry, but @Gaia, your suggestions completely miss the point of my entire reason for making this post? Increasing the amount of xp from fishing, or adding extra ripples doesn't help with the fact that I, and others, struggle to maintain focus in order to take part in the actual activity itself.

It isn't that there isn't enough XP per fishing trip, it is literally that playing that particular profession is extremely difficult for me, because it requires constant, intense concentration for a full 60 seconds, and getting distracted in that time negatively impacts the gain of xp as well as fish/items obtained. It is the complete opposite of the other professions, wherein you can set it up, and leave it to return at a later time (minutes or hours or days later) and you do not get punished for that! I am just suggesting that the option be available for folks to use the Fishing Profession in the same manner as the other professions.

The time frames and xp comments were just me trying to offer up options for keeping the 'net' vs 'rod' options equal.

@ThistleProse I definitely understand the frustration, as I personally also have a really hard time focussing the full 60 seconds, and often end up with a slight headache and a bit of a stiff neck (as I enter full adrenaline focus mode for some reason when I fish), so I am not trying to diminish what you are saying. I am more thinking of the overall balance, if you catch my drift. So I am sorry if my reply came off the wrong way.

I was simply saying that an inactive form of fishing already exists in the shape of hiring Koda, and adding the same thing again but slightly different feels redundant in my eyes. (That is my opinion, and not deliberately missing the point of your suggestion) So that is why I'd rather see them improve the existing features instead of adding the same thing twice. And perhaps I should've said it more explicitely, but I do think that by increasing your level and getting more ripples, and by increasing the xp for higher level fish, this should also translate into whenever you use Koda, meaning the higher level you are the more fishes she catches when you hire her and if she catches higher level fish they reward more xp than the lower level fish. And adding the fishing nets as Poe suggested to help Koda out gives you even more autonomy to improve your fishing haul.

Alternatively, something I've seen someone else suggest is that you can do shorter fishing trips. Basically do 15 second fishing trips that still have the same amount (or slightly less) ripples, so that it is not a full minute of the utmost concentration, but it is still a somewhat active minigame, rather than click a button and return in an hour.

Now I am just spitballig here, so please humor me... What if fishing was reversed? What if you generally fish inactive, and you require nets to do so (and with Poe's idea, which I really like that you can craft better nets to inrease the haul (amounts of fish caught per timeframe) and durability, similar to pickaxes and wheels. And you can hire Koda to 'teach' you to fish manually..

That way you aren't 'punished' with an ever increasing cost of hiring Koda when you struggle with the 60 seconds of full concentration. And fishing works kinda similar to a rush order or stoking in cooking/mining, where you can, in a very short time, massively increase the amount of fish you catch..

Would something like that tickle your fancy?