Misery Fishing

[tulkawendark]

Hello,

Thank you for the new Misery mode update and all your hard work. Since my favourite mode is Loper, I for sure was aboard trying this mode as well.

I would like to add my spoon of salty snow on specifically fishing in this mode. I started the game, went to Muskeg, crafted tools and went to settle in Mystery Lake - I made fishing gear.

First I tried new fishing equipment and made the tackle for passive fishing. Since the temperatures are so low - you have to start a fire in order not to freeze to death while breaking the ice - this may not always be sustainable since the wind might kick in and blow it out because you cannot build a fire in a sheltered spot in the middle of the ice. Once you accomplish this - IF the fish gets caught - you have to start a fire again to break the ice to retrieve it - and the fish I caught was 350 calories. So using minimum two coal plus a bunch of firewood to beat the external temperature, plus time, plus calories you burn and health you lose while trying to set up a spot is not a sustainable way of surviving.

Next, I tried good, old fishing hut fishing. I broke some crates with a heavy hammer, got coal and off I went. I spent 9 hours fishing and caught 0 fish. I figured bad luck, I'll try again the next day. Same story, I spent whole day fishing dawn to dusk and caught 1 fish. So the calories, times and resources are not worth it even remotely.

I do understand that Misery mode is supposed to be miserable - but not to a point where it completely excludes one of the in game activities - at least not as the start of a play through where I'm barely past 20 days mark.

Overall when it comes to fishing - in easier mode it is fairly profitable - however, it's by no means easy given the calories you spend while catching fish, the time you're freezing outside chopping wood to be able to fish in a hut and firewood you're using. I felt it was more balanced in the past versions, especially when it comes to Interloper or up.

I'd like to see this balanced and at least in early stages of the game it would allow you to catch more fish.

Thank you

[I_eat_only_wolf_meat]

6 hours ago, tulkawendark said:

I spent 9 hours fishing and caught 0 fish.

Be sure you're fishing in increments of greater than one hour.  The way the game works (according to one video I saw), your chance to catch fish can be essentially zero at low skill levels and very short fishing times.

[tulkawendark]

That's exactly my point - literally zero = I'm going to die of starvation and run out of all resources before I can improve the skill to catch anything. While I'm wasting several days on fishing and not catching anything, what exactly is my survivor supposed to eat and where to get such a pile of firewood? So, after trying fishing with those zero chances - it just figured I'm not going to do it at all in this mode.

I went from 1 to 5h blocks and experimented. I find five hour block is more than enough in one go.

Considering that the way to improve your fishing is to actually catch fish - that's a stalemate position - your skill doesn't improve without catching and you can't catch without higher level skill. There are also books, by the time you find enough to improve it enough, the world will decrease in catch in general. Also - in this mode I combed through PV, Mystery Lake, Milton and Muskeg - and I found not a single fishing book. But I doubt even if I found 1 and increased skill to 2 that it would be worthwhile fishing in this mode.

Even in difficult mode - you're not supposed to make an activity having so little worth that players would choose not to do it because doing it = you die.

 

[xanna]

6 hours ago, tulkawendark said:

Even in difficult mode - you're not supposed to make an activity having so little worth that players would choose not to do it because doing it = you die.

Who told you that? /rh

This behaviour sounds about right for Fish Spawn set to Low and Fishing Skill 1. Same in a Custom game.

Makes perfect sense to me that Misery mode forces the player to use different strategies and gameplay to survive. No reason some parts of gameplay wouldn't become drastically inefficient and effectively off-limits, that's part of what's so hard about it.

The point and joy of Misery for me is 'What would happen if all the settings are set to their hardest?' Fish spawn chance is set to Low (cf Medium in Interloper) and obviously it's much much colder. The upshot is that fishing becomes an implausible strategy (unless you get really warm clothing, or live long enough to read a lot of books). Seems about right to me! Plus it's quite 'realistic' IMO - in conditions this bad, a rookie ice-fisher is going to starve or freeze if they look at the weather and go 'Hey, you know what I fancy trying for the first time? Ice fishing!'

 

[Pencil]

It sounds like tip ups are going to be a life saver in Misery. You should take 3-4 tip ups with you next time and place 3 custom made fishing holes just outside the hut. Use a hammer to keep breaking the ice so that they don't build up too much. If you've got firewood to be out there an entire day, might as well be managing 3 or more ice holes instead of 1. 

[tulkawendark]

Xanna - Difficult yes - but I don't think they should be off limits. These things needs to be balanced through trials. I used to play Deadman and even with everything set on lowest settings - I don't recall the catch to be that bad.

It would be good to hear from you examples - which strategies - let's say Misery vs Interloper - would you say be efficient for Interloper but not efficient for Misery mode?

I shared an example/strategy of fishing in a new mode in a lot of detail and explained why that is not effective - but it was something that worked elsewhere - such as sleepwalker series or even Deadman.

Pencil that's a good strategy to try out and exactly what needs to be shared and experimented with. 👍 Though in the fishing hut your fire is sure to be protected by the walls and you can be sure several hours of fire you must build up to raise the outdoor temperature above freezing won't get blown out within a minute. However, the weather changing quickly is part of any hunting in general - such as trying to grab a deer you just shot.

I'm going to try more fishing holes - however, a bit later due to big and hopeful plans.  I'm currently on Day 27 in ML with 3 debuffs and just waiting on 96% maple sapling to dry out for get a bow. Since I haven't seen a bedroll yet, I'm thinking of hunting me some yogi bear and crafting a bedroll - to visit HRV or Timberwolf -> Ash Canyon. While the hide is drying I could try more fishing. Unless I kick the bucket before that. Sure need a lot of firewood for everything.

Edited July 25 by tulkawendark

[Pencil]

11 hours ago, tulkawendark said:

Pencil that's a good strategy to try out and exactly what needs to be shared and experimented with. 👍 Though in the fishing hut your fire is sure to be protected by the walls and you can be sure several hours of fire you must build up to raise the outdoor temperature above freezing won't get blown out within a minute. However, the weather changing quickly is part of any hunting in general - such as trying to grab a deer you just shot.

You can still use the fishing hut stove too. You can make around 4 ice fishing holes outside of a fishing hut with a door and 6 outside of a normal hut. Set your tipups outside and manually fish with the inside one (or do all tipups and keep chopping ice). You can reach the tipups without leaving the warmth of the stove. 

[tulkawendark]

Pencil - that's awesome! I tried doing that earlier with the hut, but for some reason it was giving me red zone around it and I was pushed far enough away from the hut that the in-hut fire wasn't effective, so, I had concluded that it can't be used in such a way - figured it was sort of the same thing as with the snow shelter. Then I was also trying to build fire by the rock side for shelter, but wasn't successful.

With the fishing hut, we can do both tip ups and regular fishing while waiting for the tip ups. This sure is going to tear and wear on your hammers and prybars; at least prybars is something I've been swimming in this run.

I also finished the bow and caught my first yogi bear last night - though the game played a trick on me and I nearly went pushing up the daisies growing underneath the snowdrifts out of fear. Did the standard lure yogi to the ML cabin, shoot and jump inside. Warmed up, peered out cautiously crouching - no bear anywhere. Slowly started walking across the lake, found my arrow, started searching for the blood tracks. The smooth, nowhere to hide, flat surface of the lake was completely empty, there was absolutely nothing there at all. Then... suddenly... I hear RAWWRRRR!!! right beside me 😱 - jumped out of the chair, landed - and saw the bear flopped dead on the ice before me - that was his 'with my last dying breath I shall take revenge on you' plot. 😂

Maybe I should go back to fishing. 😋