I've pretty frequently heard around the site that fishing is a least favorite profession for a lot of people, and many players describe it as a slog or a task they avoid. I think a lot of this is due to two major factors:

• The activity grind on Lorwolf rewards short bursts of attention. Once you get set up in your professions, it's easy to go between them, check in quickly, and leave them alone for a while. It's fast-paced and fishing therefore feels like a jarring break in the gameplay loop.
• Fishing demands attention for a full minute and simply isn't very exciting. It doesn't have any real skill element, is very slow-paced, and is mostly just staring at a still background waiting for ripples to show up.

I wanted to share a few ideas I've had, and a few I've seen other people mention, to improve fishing and make it less of a chore.

• Reduce the time limit. Most of the fishing minigame is just staring and waiting anyway. If the time was reduced to 30 seconds, it would be much more fast-paced.
• Have a click limit instead of a time limit. Maybe ripples could constantly appear, and your limit is a certain number of times you try to click them. It would keep the timing element, but make for a faster, more exciting game.
• Add an idle feature, like setting up a net or trap to catch fish over a period of time. I know we can already do this with Koda, but I'm imagining something more like farming where you can use an expendable item to set it up, then check back in every so often to maintain it, then collect fish when the time has elapsed. Koda could even be changed to maintain your trap for you (like how the gardeners do in farming).

I'd like to hear what everyone else thinks, and any other ideas you have! I realized that I groan to myself whenever fishing pops up in my activities list, and I think it has so much potential to be really fun with a few tweaks.

full support, fishing isnt very fun atm, but it has potential! i dont think the timers should change, but i think a net is a great idea!

i always have to fish 3-4 times to get 15 fish because of my ADHD, i cant focus for a full minute (and i'm never medicated XD)

Add an idle feature, like setting up a net or trap to catch fish over a period of time. I know we can already do this with Koda, but I'm imagining something more like farming where you can use an expendable item to set it up, then check back in every so often to maintain it, then collect fish when the time has elapsed. Koda could even be changed to maintain your trap for you (like how the gardeners do in farming).

fishing needs a major rework so i def support any changes. by this point im only levelling up using koda cause the first fishing hole is so slow to level cause the fish are so infrequent.

i would absolutely love anything to make the fishing mini-game either more engaging or more passive . even simply having an optional audio cue for pond ripples would be a minor helpful improvement . as is , it demands your entire attention in a very unstimulating way , which for some of us can make those mere sixty seconds feel miserable . like many others , i strictly use koda for this reason .

i would like to posit a minor concern over any change based on 'clicking faster' however , for other accessibility reasons . of course this was just a broad suggestion , so there might be ways to go about it which would be fine . but games that require you to click / button mash in sudden bursts have notoriously been an issue in game design for a variety of players + can lend to hand and wrist injury . if nothing else , were this the direction the minigame were moved towards , having options to avoid that method of gameplay which do not feel punishing would surely be appreciated by many !

regardless , the fishing net suggestion is one i have seen before , and it remains a favorite personally ! i think more ways to intertwine crafting with other professions would be good - and perhaps some recipes that don't require bone paste would be appreciated haha - which this seems like it would naturally lend itself to . perhaps certain nets , or bait , could be made / cooked which would be more likely to attract specific fish / items as well , in case people want a little bit of an edge for getting materials they are after .

well , no matter what , it seems like there is a lot of potential that fishing could have , but right now it is by far my most neglected profession . so i'd be pretty pleased to see it adjusted at all , whether it's just small QoL or a larger revamp .

I really think fishing needs some kind of rework, I only do it now because I can hire Koda to do it, and that feels like an unnecessary "fix" ...would rather attach my wolf to a fishing spot with like...a net item ? Like the mining profession has a wheel and pick ? And the wolf can just fish there so I can go back and check my other professions

The game play loop is certainly jump around and check things, and fishing is definitely not one I care to stop what I'm doing for

Support! You are spot on that the idleness of fishing doesn't match the rest of game play which involves a lot of jumping around. With being able to refresh battles in campaign I often wish we could just hit FISH and see how many we catch at the end lol

Huge support on this!

Full Support! - Would love fishing to be made more like the other professions

Support. I really wish fishing would get an overhaul before any other professions were added. It is a very big weak spot for the game.

One thought I've had: Introduce bait and rod/reel equipment, then completely invert the game play. Instead of clicking on ripples, have players click on an empty part of the image, start 2-3 second timer, and then you find out if you got something. What you catch would be based on your equipment/bait, where you clicked (ex: bettas more common on the edge, koi more common in the center for the 1st level area), your fishing level, and RNG--weighted to give similar amounts of fish as the current system as long as the player takes time to learn it. This would make it feel like a real minigame by introducing choice and skill.

Bait could just be food items that already exist in the game. Players could have something like a 75% chance of getting the item back (maybe modified by fishing level/targeted fish) and never lose it for trinkets/shards, or maybe would just use like five of the item for the whole trip to keep it simple. Certain fish would prefer certain baits.

Support for an update to fishing. Even just adjusting the exp output would be an improvement, tbh. And I’d like to see this worked on before we get another profession.