Why is fishing so popular in development requests?

General Discussion
#1

So, I’ve been around the Stonehearth discourse for a while, and one thing I’ve noticed a ton of is requests for fishing, fisherman classes, etc… The strange thing is, this is not the only game where I’ve been seeing this request; Starbound, Rise to Ruins, and many others that I play have also had a number of people asking for the inclusion of the iconic marine pastime. It seems strange to me, given our media’s tendency to stereotype fishing as tedious and time-wasting (I’m looking at you, “overused time-lapse shot of people with rods waiting on the pier for a nibble”!)–I wouldn’t think it’d be so popular or focused on.

So I wanted to ask people here: What is the deal with fishing? Why does there seem to be this strange obsession with this particular activity/facet of worldbuilding, especially considering that the demand transcends game genres?

(Also, feel free to share other examples of this type of request with other games–I’m curious to see just how many of these situations are out there!)

6 Likes
Stonehearth FISHERMAN
#2

I think you have too look at the primaire roles of human being, Especially man have the urge to seek for food.
Therefor most likely Fishing is one of the primary asks of multiple person.

1 Like
#3

Fishing as an activity is, as @Yohane said above, one of the primary food gathering activities that tribal humans would have undertaken. Not with a rod but rather with a spear.

We already have gathering, farming and animal rearing in their most basic form, we are just missing fishing and hunting. Hunting is partially represented by the trapper, I’d like to see a huntsman class that hunts roaming dear or some other larger mammal and birds.

The final aspect is fishing and as it turns out tends to be the last primary food gathering activity that gets implemented in the games you have listed.

4 Likes
#4

##well i havnt ever though about it but now that you mention it it is kinda weird

I guess its cuz it would be a steady food source and it would be fun.
As for why its so popular idk xD

3 Likes
#5

I would love fishing for getting food and also make the ingame water more into something that you can use for something and not only for making bridges over ect but gather food and maybe easier to get wells close to them

4 Likes
#6

I’d think it’s because 70% of the Earth’s surface is water, it’s kinda weird that it’s not being utilized. I also believe that many do find fishing enjoyable, even if they don’t catch a fish. Water has been a huge part of the development of civilization, whether for drinking or for food gathering.

3 Likes
#7

My thoughts on it is it could be an alternative to the trapper. With the way loadouts work at the initial phase of the game only one of the choices has the trappers knife, and it is still the best option to pick because of that (IMO). If, hypothetically, the fishing rod is as difficult to acquire as the trapper’s knife is currently, it would be a good alternative choice for the starter resources loadout.

The thing about the trapper is the job creates two types of resources, food and skins, at a steady pace without having to manage it. Perhaps fishing can as well in order to make it a desirable choice. The food part is obvious, but I’m not sure what other uses it would have. Maybe fish oil for herbalist potions or something? Or sea salt for cooking recipes. If the fisherman job doesn’t have another use then it would essentially be a less useful trapper. Especially if the trapper gets some town defense abilities as it’s unimplemented abilities suggest.

3 Likes
#8

While there is an element of realistically being a nice source of food, I think here is also an almost nostalgic reason for some people. Like how many games have you played that has fishing? My favorite child games, Dark Dloud 1 & 2, had fishing in them and I loved it. I think it is popular in games from Japan… which makes sense with it being an island and all xD

Bonus Look how many games have fishing mini games!

2 Likes
#9

I honestly fish for fun as a pastime, if im not playing games, guitar, or sleeping, its fishing, its fun, and like countless have said, some early examples of string (Like bamboo Fibers or early rope) attached to a stick, counted as fishing, I could care less about it, but having a reason to build near a lake or river stream in this game could be warranted with a fisherman class, food and sometimes scales (Trove the game for example) could be used to build upgrades to rods to catch different fish, like a marine rods or river rods, and looking at hearthlings go to the shore to fish, seems more realistic, some island cultures adapted to marine hunting, so any civ game will have to get a fishermans class soon, because thats what we did as neanderthals, either by hand, spear, or rod. before the continents split, it was inland hunting, but later, it was fishing!!!

2 Likes
#10

I think it has to do with the relative mechanical silence of water. I mean, you can’t really do anything with it. Building it into moats or ponds can be buggy, and besides that, there’s not much relationship between it and your hearthlings. This could be fixed in a lot of ways, I think (maybe hearthlings prefer to sit next to water when they eat, or animals could take drinks) but fishing is the most interactive of these for stonehearth.

4 Likes
#11

It’s not everything about fishing. Looking at water seeing fish swimming around is like looking into a campfire. It’s just essential to humans.
So the water system and fishing is needed to bring the world fully to life.

2 Likes
#12

A lot of other games have done brilliant fishing mini-games – Torchlight 2 comes to mind, and more recently Stardew Valley; but also a lot of MMOs. Dwarf Fortress also made fishing more interesting* than it is IRL; and I’m pretty sure that there’s a Final Fantasy game with interesting fishing options.

Of course, for every great fishing mini-game there’s a terrible one too – Minecraft gets a lot of complaints since its fishing feels pretty tedious.

Fishing really fits with the survival genre though, and that combined with the massive nostalgia of those great fishing mini-games is a strong driving factor of the idea that fishing is something Stonehearth just can’t do without.

*Ok, so fishing IRL is a really popular passtime and hobby, and it’s certainly not boring. But it’s also a long-term hobby, it can take hours to get a nibble and there’s no guarantee of a catch. Video game versions of fishing are far from realistic; but they’re also designed for quicker gratification; so you spend more time enjoying the thrill of the bite and less time waiting around for it to happen.

But yeah, it’s about bringing the game to life and allowing the hearthlings more interaction with their world, as well as adding the familiarity. People who settle next to a body of water will almost certainly end up fishing in it, so it seems inevitable that our hearthlings should do the same.

3 Likes
#13

Hi,

First settlements (around 3800 BC) settled near bodies of water. There were two types of villages -> farming villages and fishing villages.
The first time this no longer applied was: Roman Era - with the advent of aquaducts.

Aprox 80% of the population of Earth (homo-sapiens) lived adjacent to sources of fish.

Fish is the most eaten food. Been so, is so and will remain so.

Fish is more efficient than trapping and farming. You’re hungry? chuck a spear or net into the sea and you get instant food. Trapping relies on luck, farming relies on time.

Fishing is ingrained in human nature - Fishing is life - no fish? 50% of people in risk of poverty at coastal areas starve.

These are the primary reasons why fishing has been requested and suggested so much - it is natural for it to occur

2 Likes
#14

Aside from the practical reasons, foods and mats, fishing is usually pretty relaxing. I know in any game I’ve ever played that had fishing I spent a ton of time doing it, even though I hate fishing irl lol. There’s just something very calming about it. Ya don’t have to pay too much attention and all your worries seem to drift away with the ripples. If/when we get a fisher I can see myself spending some quality follow cam time with the fisherman. :merry:

5 Likes
#15

Fishing would lead to inventive recipes, actual use for water and a potential for boats and ports

2 Likes
#16

Fishing would look good, be a simple early-game food source, and in theory wouldn’t be hard to implement. You don’t need more a more complex thing than an animation of the fishing, then randomly getting bites. No need to run around and set traps/have animals run up etc like the trapper class.

I really hope it gets added to the game, even just from an aesthetic viewpoint.

2 Likes
#17

Early food source; hunting and fishing are the common go-tos for that in games. Not just settlement games like Stonehearth, but many board games that use that theme as well as tabletop pen and paper roleplaying games.

We already have some hunting by way of the trapper, though I’ll admit I would love to see a Hunter upgrade from Trapper, that lures out larger while animals that have to be fought to get a larger payout of material drops from them.

3 Likes