PATCH: August 21 – Fishing & Harvesting Overhaul

Harvesting

• Players can now find plant seeds while Fishing on ships and while Skinning creature corpses
• Plant Seed discovery chances for “basic” harvesting involving Mining, Lumberjacking, Fishing, and Skinning have been dropped moderately and will typically result in lower-rarity plant seeds

Resource Maps

• Players now have a harvesting skill gain check on each harvest attempt while using a Resource Map (Ore Map, Lumber Map, Fishing Map, Skinning Map)
• Resource Maps are no longer affected by the 60 second harvesting lockout resulting from recalling/gating/hiking/moongate travel
• Players can now find Plant Seeds when harvesting from Resource Maps, with resulting rarity levels significantly higher than Plant Seeds discovered while doing “basic” harvesting
• Players now have a chance to loot rare resource-hued items from Resource Maps, such as Verite Lanterns, Valorite Runebook Dyes, Avarite Carpet Dyes, Gold Hair Dyes, etc
• The hue of the rare item will correspond to the specific resource of the map used; players harvesting from Verite Ore Maps / Verewood Lumber Maps / Verehide Skinning maps will potentially get green items (labled as Verite) whereas players havesting from Copper / Copperwood / Copperhide maps will get tan-colored maps (labled as Copper)
• In the case of Fishing Maps (which has no Resource type), a randomized resource will be chosen for it

Land Fishing

• While fishing on land, players will no longer be prompted with a Captcha for harvesting attempts (i.e 100% automated and AFK Land Fishing is now allowed)
• While fishing on land, players will only be able to harvest Raw Fish (no special items such as Large Raw Fish, Special Fishing Nets, or Aquarium Creatures) and will do so at a substantially reduced success chance compared to normal

Ship Fishing

• While fishing on a ship, players will still be responsible for passing Captchas when prompted as before
• While fishing on a ship, players will be able to harvest Raw Fish, Special Cooking Fish (such as Raw Large Fish, Raw Lobster, Raw Crab), and Special Fishing Nets, but not Aquarium Creatures

Server Rank

• Starting next season, the Fish Harvested category of [ServerRank will be replaced with Special Fish Harvested (Raw Large Fish, Raw Lobster, Raw Crab)

Fishing Frenzies

• Fishing Frenzies are special fishing locations that randomly spawn throughout the game world in land-accessible areas
• If a player makes a Fishing skill attempt near a Fishing Frenzy, or double-clicking them with a Fishing Pole equipped, they will attempt to harvest from it in a manner similar to Fishing Resource Maps
• Fishing Frenzies have a limited number of harvest attempts, but players may potentially harvest one or more Freshwater Aquarium Creatures from them

Aquarium Creatures

• A large number Aquarium Creatures have now been added to the fishing system
• Aquarium Creatures are now broken down into three Rarity levels: Common, Uncommon, and Rare
• Aquarium Creatures are now broken down into two Water types: Freshwater and Saltwater
• Players can only harvest Freshwater Aquarium Creatures from Fishing Resource Maps and Fishing Frenzies
• Players can only harvest Saltwater Aquarium Creatures from Special Fishing Nets, Fishing Spots, and SOSes
• When players harvest an Aquarium Creature, it is initially considered to be “Fresh” but will convert to “Dried Out” status if they are not placed into an Aquarium within 6 hours of being caught (this also applies if players remove an Aquarium Creature from an aquarium)
• Players can single-click or double-click to view how much time remains before an Aquarium Creature dries out
• When this patch goes live, all existing Aquarium Creatures will automatically convert to Dried Out status (explained later)
• Players can now use scissors and daggers on unwanted Aquarium Creatures to convert them into a random assortment of Raw Large Fish, Raw Lobster, or Raw Crab (amount varies based on creature rarity)

Aquariums

• Players can now double-click any Aquarium to access its Aquarium System
• Each type of aquarium can now hold a number of Aquarium Creatures inside

Aquarium Capacities are as follows:

Wall Aquarium: Capacity 10
Lively Hexagon Aquarium: Capacity 15
Lively Aquarium: Capacity 30
Giant Aquarium: Capacity 40

• Players can click the “Add Creature” button to add an Aquarium Creature from their backpack to the aquarium, so long as the creature is currently still Fresh and not Dried Out
• While an aquarium has any creatures inside, players can click the Left/Right arrows on the far left side of the screen to rotate through the different creatures currently residing in the aquarium
• While a creature is selected, it’s Name, Player Who Caught It, and Weight will be displayed on the bottom left side of the menu
• If “Show Cursor” is currently toggled, the location of the currently selected creature will be shown with a pointer in the aquarium gump; players can click the arrows next to Show Cursor to hide the cursor on screen if they wish
• Players can use the 4 Direction buttons to move the currently selected creature around in the aquarium
• Players can change how many pixels each click of the 4 Direction buttons moves a creature by clicking the left/arrow arrows next to “Move X Px”
• Players can change the background graphic of the aquarium by pressing the left/arrows next to “Background”
• Players can remove the currently selected creature from an aquarium by clicking the “Retrieve” button, which will place the creature in the player’s backpack
• If a player uses an Axe to chop the aquarium back into a deed, all Aquarium Creatures currently within the aquarium will drop to the ground at the previous location of the aquarium
• Players can click the “Catch of the Week” button to launch the Catch of the Week system menu (explained later)

Catch of the Week

Overview

• Catch of the Week is a new system where players compete amongst each other in a contest to see whom can contribute the largest size creatures for three Aquarium Creature types randomly chosen each week
• One random Freshwater Aquarium Creature will be chosen each week and two Saltwater Aquarium Creatures will be chosen each week
• Between the three creatures selected, there will always be one Common creature, one Uncommon creature, and one Rare creature
• Catch of the Week operates on a weekly cycle, that begins and ends at the same time that Society Jobs are reset each week (Friday nights)
• Players can view the Catch of the Week Menu by typing [CatchOfTheWeek or [COTW or by clicking the “Catch of the Week” button on any aquarium menu or Fish Bait menu (explained later)

Catch of the Week Menu

• At the bottom of the page are three buttons that when clicked navigate to the different pages of the Catch of the Week System: “Current Catch of the Week”, “Previous Catch of the Week”, and “View and Purchase Rewards”

Current Catch of the Week

• On the “Current Catch of the Week” page, players can see which Aquarium Creatures are currently being requested for this week’s event
• Each creature listing shows the name of the Aquarium Creature as well as its Water Type and its Rarity Type
• If a player has already contributed a version of that creature this week, the weight of their best contribution for that creature will be displayed under “My Best Contribution” for it

Contributing Creatures
Players can click the “Contribute Creature” button to target an Aquarium Creature in their backpack and “contribute” it to the system so long as the following is true:

• The player contributing the creature was the player who Caught the creature in the first place (players can double-click a creature to view details about it)
• The Aquarium Creature is Fresh and not currently Dried Out
• If the player has already contributed a creature of this type this week, the new creature being contributed is larger than their previous one (i.e. it is bigger than what they have listed under “My Best Contribution” for that creature type)

If all those are true, the player will “contribute” the creature to the system and the “My Best Contribution” for that Aquarium Creature will be updated

Contributing an Aquarium Creature does NOT delete or consume the creature, but it will however “Dry Out” the creature, meaning it can no longer be placed in an aquarium nor can be used in future Catch of the Week Events

Resolving The Event

• At end of the week, the top 10 players for each creature type will be ranked from top to bottom based on Best Contribution Size, and each will receive Catch of the Week Reward Points based on their rank place for that creature
• Players can click on the “Previous Catch of the Week” button to view the results of the previous week and see if they made the 10 top list on any creature

Players earn reward points for a creature as follows:

1st Place: 15 Reward Pts
2nd Place: 14 Reward Pts
3rd Place: 13 Reward Pts
4th Place: 12 Reward Pts
5th Place: 11 Reward Pts
6th Place: 10 Reward Pts
7th Place: 9 Reward Pts
8th Place: 8 Reward Pts
9th Place: 7 Reward Pts
10th Place: 6 Reward Pts

Reward Points are stored on an account-basis for a player, and can be spent by any character on that account

However, in order to prevent players from abusing this system by using a large number characters and accounts to flood the leaderboard, for each Aquarium Creature type, only the best contribution per IP Address will be considered when calculating weekly results (i.e if a player uses multiple characters across different accounts to make contributions for the same creature, only their best one on their IP address will be used for that creature)

Reward Purchases

• Players can click the “View and Purchase Rewards” button to navigate to the Rewards page
• Players can see how many Reward Points they have available to spend as well as how many total reward points they have earned in their lifetime
• Player can click the “Info” button next to a reward item to view a description of the item before purchasing it

• Players can purchase a “Catch of the Week Reward Sack”, which when double-clicked, will consume the sack and place a randomized decorative item in the player’s backpack, some of which are animated (flowing stones on the bottom of this image)

Achievements

• Add the “Sportsman” Achievement set, under the Gathering category, for earning Catch of the Week reward points
• While not worth any Achievement reward points (since the CoTW system has its own reward point system), the Sportsman category will grant player Titles

Fish Bait

• Players can now craft Fish Bait using the Cooking skill (requires 1 Plant Chemical and other assorted ingredients)
• Fish Bait is used to increase the chance that when a player harvests an Aquarium Creature, the resulting creature will be a specific creature type
• If a player double-clicks a Fish Bait item in their backpack, it will open the Fish Bait menu
• On the Fish Bait menu, players can rotate through all the different Aquarium Creature types available based on their current filters for Water Type and Rarity Type
• Players can click the small buttons next to Water Type and Rarity type to change those filters, and can click the large buttons to rotate through creatures that meet those filter criteria
• If the displayed creature type is currently requested in this week’s Catch of the Week, it will be indicated as such in the Fish Bait menu
• Players can click the “Catch of the Week” button to launch the Catch of the Week system menu

• Players can click the “Open Fish Bait” button to chose the currently selected Aquarium Creature type as the selected creature type for this fish bait
• One a Fish Bait has been opened, the item will turn into “Opened Fish Bait” and will last for 60 minutes (and players will not be able to change the creature type)
• Players can double-click Opened Fish Bait to see a menu displaying which creature type was selected for it, how much time is remaining, and can also launch the “Catch of the Week Menu”

Whenever a player harvests an aquarium creature and if they have any Opened Fish Bait in their backpack, it will randomly select one Opened Fish Bait from their backpack, and it will be used as follows:

• If the Creature Type of the Fish Bait is a Common rarity creature, there is a 20% chance the Aquarium Creature that is harvested will become that type
• If the Creature Type of the Fish Bait is an Uncommon rarity creature, there is a 10% chance the Aquarium Creature that is harvested will become that type
• If the Creature Type of the Fish Bait is a Rare rarity creature, there is a 5% chance the Aquarium Creature harvested that is will become that type

Otherwise, the Aquarium Creature that is harvested will be randomized as normal

Society Jobs

• Society Jobs for harvesting specific Aquarium Creatures have been removed and jobs for “Completing Fishing Frenzies” have been put in their place

Ships and Effective Fishing Skill

• The “Fishing Special Chance Bonus” stat on Ships, Ship Upgrades, and Ship Crewmembers has now been replaced with a “Effective Fishing Skill” stat and values adjusted to reflect this (this is a flat value, and not a percentage)
• Any player on board a ship will have their Effective Fishing Skill when performing fishing activities adjusted by the ship’s “Effective Fishing Skill” value
• Effective fishing value affects their normal fishing success chances as well as their chance to pull up special items when doing Fishing Spots, Special Fishing Nets, or SOSes
• When a new ship deed is crafted, its starting Effective Fishing Skill value will randomly start between -5 and +5 (instead of a -10% to +10% range like other ship stats)
• The Mariner’s Fortune Ship Ability now grants the ship a +5 Effective Fishing Skill bonus for 3 minutes when used

Messages in Bottles / SOSes

• Players will now occasionally pull up decorative items when fishing at SOS locations including pillows and large shells with randomized hues from our entire hues collection

Ship Upgrade Tome

• Players can now purchase Ship Upgrade Tomes from the Prevalia Market Merchant to store and organize their Ship Upgrade Deeds
• Ship Upgrades added to a Ship Upgrade Tome are stored alphabetically, with Ship Paint upgrades listed with (paint) and Ship Cannon Metal upgrades listed with (cannon) in their names