jimmyhan075

Dang, this post aged well.

No, not commercial net fishing that literally empty entire regions of fish, but recreational net fishing. Or crab fishing or trapping. I think now this game have essentially covered almost every single part there is in fishing that requires a rod and reel besides fly fishing, so now I think perhaps RF4 try out some other fishing methods for the sake of diversity. Net fishing would require extensive knowledge of the waterbody and very skillful placement of the net, and, depending on how you plan to net-fish, the bait. Some net fishing involves luring the fish close and casting the net almost like how you would cast a rod, others require you set the net beforehand and bait it, others would have you set the net and scare the fish into the net by throwing rocks etc. In fact, I have seen rigs that have specially designed nets attached at the end of a feeder for ground bait coupled with a float. It gains a bad reputation for emptying entire areas of fish but rest assured this is only limited to commercial fishing. Recreational net fishing requires as much skill for an experience angler would need for his rod. Crab fishing and trapping (mussels and clams) are quite similar to net fishing, but they are a LOT less dynamic. You will not get any indicators of crabs and mussels sneaking into these traps and trying to munch the bagged bait in the middle. Crabs and mussels, as omnivores, eat the most intriguing variety of I have every observed in omnivores. From bait selection, I have seen people hook from sausages to chicken breast to rotten fish to cucumbers to canned crab and the wildest stuff imaginable and stills somehow catch a batch of these curious creatures. Sometimes fish and other sea-dwellers may wander inside there, but they are rare. Crab/trap fishing would require an extensive knowledge of waterbodies and underwater structure. It would also require knowledge of the tide, wind, moon (tide) and much more to have a successful haul. One might set out tens of traps one night only to find in utter dismay they next day that the low tide has actually fell beneath the traps. Nothing but only bait. Yes, I will have people say to me, "tens of traps will ruin the experience" I know it will, and there is a solution to this: Trap/Net limits. Just like for rods. This way, you won't have players hurling thousands of 'em at once. Well, thats it, just some suggestions to spice up this game, more diversity is, I suppose, always welcome.

You are a high level player, obviously investing much more into this game than me, but I think we both care about this game and want it to last. Being a recreational fisherman myself, I find this game a gem compared other stuff offered on steam right now. Speaking purely in terms of benefits to the RF4 team that would help them keep the game alive longer, it needs to have more players join AND stay. The most important part of my suggestion above, which I had made a paragraph trying to highlight the underlying logic of what makes a game "addicting". It does not matter what your vision for the game is. It is, as far as most online games go, pretty universal. A smoother transit from low to high level with more options along the way is going to make any game loose less players. But "smooth" is rather subjective. IMHO adding some stronger gear and bait at a lower price coupled with a new low-level or beginner map won't hurt the game that much. Yes, steam charts are rather healthy for such a game. Many games that are very specific in terms of their field (like fishing) often have a set market. And their steam charts would look like this: Not necessarily cash grab, but just the way this specific market works. RF4 would have a different player count system given the way this market works. But its quite interesting the spikes of the RF4 and how it relates with the updates released. Notice 2 major spikes in its Player count and its major drops. Notice how the drop near January of 2022 is much less gradual than that of January 2020? I believe this holds direct testimony to my observations. Now, what I'm doing now has probably been done by the RF4 financial analyst a gazillion times by now, but if they had not analyzed these 2 trends, I am for sure doing the RF4 team a favor. Both spikes happened almost directly after, or during, an announcement to make a new map or the release of a new map. Respectively ladoga Archipelago (more recent, level 27) and Donez (2020, level 22) So why did the player count for 2020 decrease less rapidly than the one for 2022? Of course, you can say because of the Russo-Ukrainian war and the RF4 team's subsequently Less follow-up updates after that. OR, you can say because the number of people who can actually access the first map is greater than that of the second map. (level 22 vs level 27) This is positive correlation. We could draw a conclusion here that more content for increasingly lower levels = more staying in-game from players that join due to this excitement. I have one extra data point that reinforces my point. During mid-june and july of 2020 the RF4 team introduced heavy baitcasters and a new map respectively. The new map is know as Lower Tunguska River. Look at the image above and you'll see jul'20. Notice that the player count actually dropped. No spiking whatsoever. You can say they did not invest as much in advertising as they did for the previous 2 maps, I would say that does play a role in this, but I will also say that its also because this update is released for high-level players. Level 30 is required for LTR and the price tag for Heavy baitcasters is a natural bar against low-levels, not to mention skill progression. Yes, level 20 is still quite high, but 30 is huge for newcomers. 20 is manageable if enough investment is made, but even still we can still see thousands of them leave if it gets too high (22 vs 27, as mentioned) the level 30 map and heavy casters makes nothing but a little dent on the playercount. I am not an expert, I am just trying to quantify and somehow use numerical data to justify my claims. But as far as my research goes, adding new content friendly to beginners should only be beneficial. Even for high level players like you, I think we can both agree that adding more low-level content to this game wouldn't hurt anyone, but would certainly be a pleasure for low level guys like me. New maps and equipment for more diversity. And, as far as my observation goes, it should hold true. I certainly hope that the next map released will be a low-level one. It will keep me in this game for a much longer time.

I don't know how high level players feel about this, but I feel this game needs to balance grind and the sense of accomplishment better, especially for lower-level players. I feel that this games makes high-level look like a distant dream for many low level people. It kinda defeats the purpose of a fishing game being fun. This begs the question, what makes a game fun? (theoretical stuff below, skip next paragraph for actual suggestions) Speaking purely in terms of a game being fun and attracting more players, it needs to have actual progression and senses of accomplishment along its progression. This is universal in terms of games. This is the same reason why in many games you have very simple starting level or levels. In fact, many online games would make sure you win the first few matches so that you have a sense of accomplishment. This way you will stay hooked to this game. Furthermore, many online games will make sure you win a few games if your WL rate is too low or loose a few if it is too high. All this too make sure you don't feel like winning (progression) is a faraway dream nor do you feel that victories (progression) in game offers zero achievement. Ideally, a game should spread its progression along the progression spectrum (from noob to intermediate to pro to whatever) wisely. Players should not feel zero sense of accomplishment when they achieve something, nor should they feel that this game is too grindy, such that higher-levels are only achievable via cash or impossibly long hours of grind. However, videogames, being consumable in nature, when at its end of its cycle, will loose its balance of this. They will often be a cash grab so that it can earn as much money as it can before it....dies. (end of theory, in practice with RF4) I find RF4 being one of the best fishing games out their in terms of quality and content. I do not want to see this game die, at least not before Covid-19 ends so I can have some actual fishing experience during lockdowns. I kinda feel that this game needs some VERY MAJOR BALANCING in order for it to keep newcomers motivated. If the RF4 team haven't hired a game psychologist to evaluate their game, they should. I do not say that RF4 should eliminate its grind. It should not, because grind is the most direct thing to make progression in this game feel like achievements, not empty names. But right now, RF4 is in a state of the other extreme - making grinding amount to very little progress and making higher levels look like a distant impossibility. It discourages players to continue. Now, I am no expert in this field. But here are a few VERY common implementations that should be extremely easy to carry out and has great effects to motivation of players, hence its widespread use: - Daily check-in progression: Every day we sign in we get free stuff. Then, when we sign in for, I dunno, 4-5 days, we get a certain amount of silver depending on your level. This is extremely widespread and proven effective if used well - Map progression: The higher level the map is, the more trophies/big fish in general and less small fish. This also makes sense given the amount of silver that increases to travel to each location as the map level increases. This should not affect realism of this game. If I pay a certain captain of a ship 1,000 bucks and he takes me near an oil rig and we fish there, I will have very low chance of catching things smaller than what I catch if I drive for 5 min and fish off the coast. The more I pay, the better I should catch given the SAME GEAR. I am no high-level player, but from what I have heard from those who are it is concerning for me. I do not wish to grind another hundred hours to catch the same old stuff I do at mosquito lake if I pay 22 silver to travel there. It might affect the realism a little, but it is definitely worth considering. - Level progression: As players level up, they should be able to have perks given to them in a separate systems. Unlocking new maps is NOT a perk. More experience or more silver per fish, or perhaps a certain amount of gold for each level-up with some free gifts or maybe even an instant happy-hour bonus etc. These above are just the most common out there. They are REALLY worth considering and should be, theoretically, easy to implement. Especially those that only affects the economy. I do have some other RF4-specific ideas that could be implemented as well. 1. Eliminate the 3-rods only policy: More rods might not always equal more fish but in most cases it does. I am not sure if this is a technical issue or a economical issue, but its neither realistic nor player friendly. I have seen people fishing with a whole rack of rods, thus so much for realism. And this limits the amount of fish you can catch per active time period, thus bad for players. If possible, I would suggest increasing it to 5 rods. I mean, for most fellas out there, who doesn't just set their 3 rods and put on a bell and watch netflix until the bell rings? Its just player-unfriendly 2. MORE OPTIONS FOR NEWCOMERES: I have stated said this before in some other thread, but I will say it here again. RF4 really needs more options for new players when they are transiting from "new" to "just learned the ropes" to "alright, I've played enough to handle most stuff out there". There is just not enough transit. I doubt level 1-12 players can save more than 200 silver given their gear. I myself, a level 13 (almost 14) player count a 149 silver saving as a "helluva lot of money" earned through at least a 3-day 2-3 hr real time per day grind. I do not know how many 3 day grinds like that I can go through before getting bored out of my mind. I feel a sense of achievement when I see my 149 but the prices and the tiny movement on the level progression bar makes higher level gear and maps look like a dream. Its ridiculous and needs to change. Either prices needs to be compressed, more transitional content added, or something. Otherwise, I will say its just too unfriendly. I do need some stats on this, I, unfortunately do not have stats other than my own. If people can send their in-game hours + levels that will be great e.g 117.5 hours on Steam, level 13 in game. Continuing on from point 2, 117.5 hours would put me on-par with my Company of Heroes 2 in game hours, which is 241.1 hours. However, for my CoH, I can assure you that even when I was at my 100th hour I have already learnt the ropes, I am able to compete against multiple hard AI alone or solo against some expert AI. A 100 hour investment into any other game would give me an extraordinary amount of progress. However, the same investment in RF4 gives me almost nothing.

2022 now, yeah, nah, don't think that's gonna happen.

So today I was fishing in the wonderful 4th map with a feeder rod on infinite brakes and good lines and some potato cubes which caught me some big carp. Unfortunately as a folly on my part the infinite brakes instantly broke my starter gear yet failed to break the line. Thus, I was able to drag the fish ashore. Now, I cut the line and took it to the repair shop and now the fish is flopping on land, how am I to collect it? I did not find any solutions so I am writing this now. The fish is still flopping there, I'll wait for some answers. Thanks in advance