Fishing Contest:

[The Crazy Animal]

This is a copy of fishing contests from the wiki page to test to see if it gives an error message still.


Here?s an idea based off of something Aukey mentioned. He mentioned a textblock script similar to grave-digging that would let a player fish. So I thought about the fishing thing and I would like to suggest a self-repetitive group of concurrently running contests to go with it. Basis of the contest is to catch the biggest fish in a set period of time at the end of the period of time a winner would be declared. The contest would start to run again next time a player enters a fish.

Now the fun part comes in that not all the fish are harmless. So you might have the chance while fishing to pull up say a venomous water snake or electric eel to maybe some thing as large as a water dragon or sea serpent depending on the area you?re in. Each fish though should have some rough size description in the name ranging from tiny to huge not using the description txt option. This is so that each size description of the fish type can have a weight range but to check how big a fish really is you would have to kill it. The fish then would trigger by use of the death spell to give you a dead (name) fish of the correct type with a weight given in the description. To enter the fish in the contest you would then simply take it to the Fisherman?s Guild for that area. Where You basically would talk to the NPC that is the contest judge and they take the fish entering you into the contest. If you try to later enter a smaller fish then the last fish you brought to enter it would tell you, you've already entered a larger fish. There will be prizes for winning these contests.

Other uses for the fish items could be just be a way for making a little pocket change something like you could get a few gold pieces at most per fish at say a fishmonger?s stand or selling them at a local inn. (The rarer and larger the fish the more money it would fetch at market.)

This is what would be needed for this is content wise: A selection of fish and dangerous aquatic creatures with death spells set for the dead fish items. A selection of fishing rods set to catch those different fish and creatures at different rates via textblocks. (Some fish should still be rare to catch even if you have say, the best rod in the game.) The dead fish items of varying weights correlating to the different fish. A few versions of the fisherman?s guilds so they can go in different locations around the realm and not all look the same some can be as small as a shack others can be larger each one should have a different NPC in it.

[edit]Notes on fish:
The fish should give very little exp and not fight very hard maybe a do nothing splash spell and maybe a very weak bite attack. Some of the more dangerous creatures can be worth more but the amount of exp they give needs to be kept on par with how dangerous it is to try to kill it. The fishing contest however shouldn?t work with the dangerous creatures but there could be other contests for these creatures.

[edit]Notes on fishing rods:
The better the fishing rod is higher the chance is to catch the larger versions of the rarer fish is however it also influences the danger level of the dangerous creatures. There might need to be some level restrictions placed on some of the ones that can bring up the really difficult dangerous creatures so that the lower level players to get eaten each time the go fishing.

[edit]Coding Needs:
The contest timer would be started following a check to see if the timer is already running by an NPC as the first player attempts to enter a fish. At the end of timers limit a textblock would pick the winners. The winners would be declared to the realm and the winners would get their winner abilities. The non-winning contest abilities would then be cleared from the players that entered. The contest would then be over until the next time a player tries to enter the contest. The following is what I think would need to be coded for it:

[edit]Functions Needed:
[edit]Timer
A dynamically spawning group of contest timers that can be triggered via a textblock with a given ID number, time parameter, and textblock value to trigger when it runs out.

Example:
ContestTimer (Timer ID number) (time limit) (Trigger textblock # on end)
- Note this timer could be used for lots of other things other than this contest as well.
[edit]Timer Check
A textblock function to check if a timer is running if it passes it executes the next textblock function. However if it fails it skips to the next textblock function.

Example:
CheckContestTimer (Timer ID Number)
[edit]Winner Check
A textblock function that can search trough all the players and select a winner based on ability numbers with the highest value. This function needs to be able to give the winners a textblock set ability.

Example:
ContestPlayerSearch (ability# ) (reward ability #) (reward value #)
[edit]Winner Announce
A textblock ability that can search through all the players for an ability and value set and then make a custom realm wide announcement listing the names of the players with that ability.

Example:
ContestWinnerSearch (Ability# ) (Value #) (Announcement message)
- Note some message should like something like this:
(Wild card substituted player name) is the winner of the (fish type) fishing contest.
[edit]Clear for restart
A textblock function that can search through all the players in the game and while doing so clear an ability number from the player?s ability lists.

Example:
ContestClearAbility (Ability #)
[edit]Abilities Needed
One ability for showing the winners they won, this abilities value should match a message # of the same value. This message would need to be displayed to the winning players in red letters on their stat page where the spells would be shown. A few ability numbers that are not going to be used for other things there needs to be one per fish type used in the contests.

Retrieved from "http://www.greatermud.com/wiki/index.php/Idea:Fishing_Contests"

[The Crazy Animal]

Anyone have any suggestions for this:
Types of fish?
Types other types of Creatures it should pull up?
Anything else?

[Mage]

While the idea is fantastic...  I think its important that it not simply be a mixture between Pokemon, and Animal Crossings fishing minigames.

It would be nice to see skill involved, or lacking that, at least a stat dependency.

I never fished in Pokemon (don't say it...  the Gameboy games were great), because it just wasn't fun.  Its a great idea, and during the brainstorm/early design point, its easy to just assume that it'll be fun.  But if it doesn't wind up actually BEING fun...  it should be cut.

Stand in one place...  type "use rod to fish", then you kill a lvl 1 monster...  Stand in one place...  type "use rod to fish", then you kill a lvl 1 monster...  Stand in one place...  type "use rod to fish", then you kill a lvl 1 monster...  Stand in one place...  type "use rod to fish", then you kill a lvl 1 monster...  Stand in one place...  type "use rod to fish", then you kill a lvl 1 monster...  Stand in one place...  type "use rod to fish", then you kill a lvl 1 monster...  Stand in one place...  type "use rod to fish", then you kill a lvl 1 monster... 

Not fun.

Adding a random dangerous creature just slows down the process of catching the fish, making the tedious process take even longer also seems like a good idea...  but that just makes it take longer.

It needs to have some specific level of interaction, or hardly anyone will do it...  and the ones who do, wont enjoy themselves.

[The Crazy Animal]

Its good thinking but by that description the arena in Newhaven should have been cut then too. People do things in game even if they are tedious if the reward is worth the effort. Fishing in Pokemon was done kind of half-assed to the point of over simplification. There just wasn?t much supporting content to make it useful or very interesting other then just filling up your pokedex.

My thoughts are that content needs to have useful in game purposes or people will not try to experience the content. So besides the contest driving the players to attempt to fish there needs to be other supporting details included. The types of fish themselves should also be useful for different things such as: non-magical food heals, non-magical cures, sold for cash, used for potion ingredients, used as bait or distractions for other monsters?The random dangerous creatures added in also does other things then just slowing down the catching of the actual fish. For the most part it offsets the time spent fishing with some exp gain. It also creates some aspect of risk vs. reward to the act of fishing if you have the chance of getting something semi free in the game such as a free 1 use heal item the reward needs to match the risk.

Stat dependencies are easily done what would you suggest for it? Reeling in fish could have stat tests too. We could go as far as having a player cast, set reel in speed, jig the line. There really are only a few things that really would be hard to do because they would require graphical support. Making it more intricate isn?t hard to do we could have types of lures or bait that alter the chances of pulling in different fish in different locations. Even having a skill for it would not be too difficult to do. What would be your ideal vision for fishing in game?

[Mage]

I liked a lot of the things in the above post.  I agree that the fishing in pokemon is utterly over simplified, to the point of tedium.

I think this game (mud in general I mean) is more of a stratagy game, then it is a finger twitch game.  At best, it resembles (in the most abstract resemblence) Finan Fantasy, in its active time battle system.

So while maybe...  it wouldn't be best to have fishing be a twitch action...  it should have to be thought out.

It'd be neat to see different rods, different reals, different tess weights for lines, and different lures/baits.

Rods, and reals would be the sort of item that you buy the best you can afford...  with the possibilities of lims for winning tourny's, etc.

The tess line weight, and lure/bait would be where the stratagy comes in.  You have to know what types of fish you're likely to catch in a certain area...  or at least what fish you WANT to be catching in that area.  So you have to find information, which should be available by talking to NPCs, or even just a help file (or whatever), of how much the fish weighs, and what bait/lure its most likely to strike at.  Use a tess line too light, and it'll snap...  use one too heavy, and the fish wont strike it.  Use the right sort of bait/lure, you attract the fish you want...  use the wrong one, and you'll probably get strikes from fish you aren't so interested in.

Coordinate this with the idea of a time system being in place (even if just "day", "night", thats enough), and you get entire new, interesting permutations.

Hell...  maybe even some sort of simple, random weather system (sunny, rainy, snowy) could even effect it, and allow for rare fish to be caught.

Imagine, you're walking around silvermere (or whatever), and it starts to snow at night.  You know that ONLY on snowy nights, and ONLY in the silvermere river, you can catch a "large mouth icy river bass" (<---  only instead, insert interesting name).  BUT CRAP!  You have a great rod, and a pretty good reel...  but you only have 10lbs tess line, andd these babies can weight upto 25lbs...  and on top of that, you can't remember what bait/lure they prefer to strike on.  So you run to the bait shop, pick up 25lbs tess line, talk to Joe-Bob the bait guy, find out they like to strike on guppies, so you pick up a bucket of them...  and set out for the river.  You know you only have a few more minutes until morning, when this fish swims back up stream...  and it could stop snowing any second, so theres no time to lose.  You bait your line, and start fishing.

I can see that being fun.

[The Crazy Animal]

Ok sounds good this is what I got out of it. However right now we don?t have time or weather in the so I?m not going to suggest we plan to use it until it is in and we work the bugs out of them. I really like the idea but I know introducing content that requires support from other undeveloped content gets hairy really fast.

Rods:
Each rod should have a weight limit. If you equip a rod with a line that has a higher test weight you run the risk of breaking the rod. Broken rods can be repaired for a price. To heavy of a rod for the weight of the line and you might not see the bite message. I?m thinking having reels will over complicate it so it would just be assumed to be a rod/reel set.

Line:
Each type of line will have a test weight if the fish goes over the test weight of the line it will snap. Result you lose your line some times all of it on the rod and both your lure and any bait. Line come on a spindle and has a set number of uses before the spindle is empty. When you use the spindle it gives you a length of the appropriate type of line to set your rod with. Line types can be both bought of gathered such in the case of maybe spider silk and a few other MOB drop items.

Lure:
Each type of lure will sets a group of types of fish you can attract.

Bait:
Different types of bait can increase the chance of attracting a single type of fish. If you don?t reel in when you see the bite message you might lose your bait. Bait comes in two forms a container so you might have a container filled with worms that you can use 10 times before it is empty. Or single use so you might find a worm and just have it lose in your inventory.

Setting up a rod:
When you equip a fishing rod it gives you temp item spots on your character one space for a line, one for a lure, and one for a piece of bait. You simply equip them after you equip the rod.

Act of fishing:
Casting: This command casts the line out it will either generate a bite or no bite message. If you get the no bite message you simply cast again.
Reel-in: Using this command when you have a bite you type in reel-in or the short re and it will try to ketch the fish. A bite message will last for a few rounds this keeps it slightly reactionary but not to the point that you can?t do it drunk or otherwise intoxicated which is something some people seem to care about.

Other stuff:
Things like better line, bait, and lures should be able to be bought to a point. Beyond that the best should be reserved for prizes and or found as rewards for doing things. Such as mini gather and create quests for lures and rods and hunt and harvests events for bait and fishing line. This should help to set the act of fishing into the game further as well as give opportunities for interaction and learning via the NPCs.

Things needed still: (note for myself)
The types of fish and dangerous creatures.
Prop items for fishing.

What do you think?

[DeathCow]

I have to admit..I'm having some difficulty imagining this as fun...but I'm not opposed to trying it.

[The Crazy Animal]

lol at least you don't mind trying it. To tell you the truth the fun comes out of actually doing it and learning the strategies involved. It also provides a good opportunity to better support content and senarios dealing with  the habitats and behaviors of the different creatures to providing  new and different uses for prop items. There really is so much more we can do with this though to make it both interesting and fun even if your not a fishing fan such as:

We can also do some crazy quest starts with stuff like this like you reeled in a mermaid by mistake and provided she likes you she'll give you a quest. If she doesn't like you who knows what could happen.

A bear is chasing you through the woods and your low on HP toss him a fish and maybe it will stop following.

A pack of wolves have been terrorizing a small farming town. The wolves while together are too much for you to deal with. So if you can get them to seperate by baiting them with fish then you stand a chance of taking them out one by one.

Theres so many more things that could be done too.

[Mage]

I have to admit..I'm having some difficulty imagining this as fun...but I'm not opposed to trying it.

Try describing a text based roll playing game to someone who's never played one.

Most likely...  they'll say "I'm having some difficulty imagining this as fun"...  but Majormud has enough stratagy to make it fun.

Thats exactly what any fishing game has to capture.

[DeathCow]

I'm a fishing game noob though.

[The Crazy Animal]

Most of the fishing games that I?ve played have been heavy on the simulation and reflex responses and very light on strategy. This makes them good for quick bit fun but they don?t hold water for the long run. By concentrating on the strategy involved rather then the sim feel of it we can make the fun of it last longer and also provide good opportunities to enrich the content design and increase out of the box thinking that can help to immerse the player further into the realm.

[Vitoc]

I'm a fishing game noob though.

I heard you were a master baiter? ???

[Vitoc]

Oh, and for the record, I really like this fishing idea. 

You guys are really kicking ass on ideas.  Once all the core functionality is implemented, count on us starting to implement some of these ideas.

[DeathCow]

I heard you were a master baiter  ???

Absolutely.