Alright, I have around 200 ranks of foraging as a ranger. I have yet to lock foraging and I spent a good deal of the time yesterday fishing. There were points I caught a fish every 20 seconds or so for about 3 minutes and I was at perplexing or perplexed. I'm in the middle of the wall cycle. I can lock animal lore pretty easy but then it's only 40 ranks. At least it's more entertaining than digging in the dirt.

Calissa's player

>I'm still monitoring the experience. At this point I'm thinking I went a bit overboard (no pun intended).

The problem isn't fishing giving too much EXP, the problem is regular foraging giving too little EXP.

Foraging: 236
Animal Lore: 63
Guild: moon mage

Fished for about 40 minutes, caught 9 fish: foraging went to concentrating with very little skill increase along the way (like .02 of a rank), AL to bewildering with good skill increase along the way (like .20 of a rank)

Foraging herbs definately locks foraging skill faster; in the same amount of time spent fishing, I can usually lock foraging if I do just that. Fishing did provide lots of enchantable fishbones, but no one really wants them it seems.

Conclusions: No, you did not go overboard on fishing. It is not the preferred way to gain forage skill, at least in my case. It is, however, the preferred way to get AL skill.

Now, if you could just let us forage worms or create lures.... Shard is a long walk to a bait shop.

Wulfcat

>>>>Couple other things, any chance we can see the skinning exp from gutting fish raised some? I can't get past learning at 40 ranks.

Don't just gut it. Scrape it and then gut it. I'm at 100 skinning (meh, pretty pathetic) and that works fine.

>>Fished for about 40 minutes, caught 9 fish:

9 fish in 40 minutes? I caught 9 fish in 1/4 of that time. You're just letting your lure sit in the water, aren't you?

Don't do that. To maximize exp gain you gotta continually re-cast your pole into the water. The greatest chance of snagging a fish, by far, seems to be within 1-5 seconds of casting.

---

It is easy to be brave from a safe distance.
-Aesop

Does anyone have a list of the fishing NPCs and what they actually have?

I was looking for a fish buyer, stringer or creel on Aesry, so far I haven't had any luck.

I suppose there is a list of fish out there, somewhere, also? wouldn't it be nifty to have a fishing life list? (so what if animal crossing did it first?)

And seaweed should be edible, it's yummy, really.

Z.R.

Ssra, did you reduce fishing experience tonight, or am I just getting REALLY bad fish? I know you were monitoring it, but it seems to me that Im getting about 1/3 the foraging and about 1/5 the AL experience I was earlier. Granted, this isn't extreme testing, just what I seem to be noticing different from a few hours ago. Oh well, fishing is still more fun than foraging in my book.


-Master Ndin

<<Yeah, I reduced the fishing experience slightly less than 20%. Weight of fish now has a bit more impact on the experience. I then reduced the Animal Lore by another 30%. -Ssra>>

I was just thinking about actually using it to train too. Why would you take it away when training foraging the regular way is a joke in very bad taste?

At least fishing has some foraging application. Foraging is just getting to 300 foraging then you can find everything forever.

=( I'm sad you lowered the exp gain because now I can't actually use it for training. 20%-30% doesn't sound like a lot, but it's the difference between me being able to lock it after 15-20 minutes, and not being able to lock it at all now. =(

>>Locking a skill isn't necessarily the most efficient way to absorb it into ranks.

True, but it is the fastest. For me at a post wall rank I can get a .06% per pulse, which gives me 1.08% per hour which is a rank if I can keep it at mind lock, whereas; If I can only get to perplexing I'm getting .02% per pulses which is .36% per hour. That increases my training time 3X if I cannot keep it at mind lock.

I always though it was best to mind lock, unless I'm missing part of the bigger picture. If so, fill me in.





IllWillPress.com Bow down to the power of Foamy!

>Locking a skill isn't necessarily the most efficient way to absorb it into ranks. You still get the same number of bits everyone else does and if you're survival primary you'll absorb those bits faster than others.

>You don't have to lock a skill to keep it moving.

Yes, but you do have to lock if you want the skill to move as fast as possible. Also, if it is impossible to lock, what's the advantage of having the skill in your primary skillset?

<<If neither can lock, then there is no advantage of having the skill primary.>>

No, you don't have to fill the pool to maintain an advantage. A primary skillset will drain more bits per pulse - thus better bit to rank ratio.

-Ssra

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." -Albert Einstein

>Yeah, my sole mission in life is to be the biggest <explictive> I can be. Fill in the blank with your favorite word and repeat it 10x.

>If I wanted to be like that I'd just put the original code back in and you can go back to fishing for sport instead of for EXP. Wait, oh yeah, most of you probably never fished before this change. My bad.

It's not you Ssra (I love that you comminicate with us and seem very active), and I didn't intend it to sound that way. It's the foraging skill. For whatever reason, it is just supposed to be very difficult to train. I was really venting about the skill itself.

<<....entire foraging system. We'll review the EXP there too if necessary....
-Ssra>>

Please, please, please, please...I'll be your bestest buddy. I'll even tell someone to buy you a drink in Vegas! The deal with foraging isn't that I can't train it, I can lock it in about 8 minutes, but that it's a stationary skill that completely impairs your ability to learn most other skills at the same time.

Calissa's player

Ssra.. I know you downgraded the experience late last night/early this morning. Is there any way you can kick up the AL learning just a little bit again? I understand it was way too high yesterday, but after 15+ fish, my AL is barely moving. I understand secondary skills arent supposed to be easier to lock, but at 85 ranks lower, I would think the secondary skill should be moving a little faster. My foraging is 121 (tert) and my AL is 36 (secondary).

Animal Lore: 36 79% thoughtful

I've managed to hit pondering once since the change. I wouldnt ask, because I know AL has few uses for non-rangers, but it sounds as if AL will have plenty of uses in the future and there are so few ways to train it currently.

-Master Ndin

<<I've managed to hit pondering once since the change.>>

Are you sure you're not just coming off a wall rank? EXP drains fast when coming out of a wall.

The EXP is still pretty sizable. What was your foraging pool at when doing this?

Also, knowing what guild you're in will help as well.

Thanks.

-Ssra

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." -Albert Einstein

Guild is Warrior Mage, and I dont keep 100% track of my wall ranks on all skills, especially on a skill in the 30's, that until recently I have only trained through being taught (except for the first 8-10 ranks in crocs). Its at 98% now, so Ill see how it changes with the next rank (or couple ranks). I know my foraging is always wall or pre-wall, but Ill keep track of that as well.

After all those fish, I can manage to get fishing locked or at least near-locked, but AL was moving extremely slow. Like I said, Ill keep track of it over the next few ranks, and let you know a little better. Ill try to fish quite a bit today to get some decent results.

-Master Ndin

Foraging: 200 77% concentrating
Animal Lore: 25 40% pondering

After 20 minutes of fishing the same way that had both of those skills locked the other day.

I understand mentals are a big part of that, and I have great mentals, but it was locking before and is not now. This is as my moonie, I'll try with my Ranger later.

[15:15] You've pulled in a largetooth carp.
[15:15] Foraging: 121 88.71% thoughtful
[15:15] Animal Lore: 36 99% learning

[15:19] You've pulled in a spiny-backed gar.
[15:19] Foraging: 121 88.84% concentrating
[15:19] Animal Lore: 37 00.21% thoughtful

[15:21] You've pulled in a flathead pardfish.
[15:21] Foraging: 121 89.12% muddled
[15:21] Animal Lore: 37 00.21% pondering

[15:22] You've pulled in a largetooth carp.
[15:22] Foraging: 121 89.12% perplexing
[15:22] Animal Lore: 37 02.01% concentrating

[15:22] You've pulled in a largetooth carp.
[15:22] Foraging: 121 89.12% perplexed
[15:22] Animal Lore: 37 02.01% concentrating

[15:25] You've pulled in a spiny-backed gar.
[15:25] Foraging: 121 89.69% bewildering
[15:25] Animal Lore: 37 04.60% concentrating

[15:30] You've pulled in a freshwater eel.
[15:30] Foraging: 121 90.92% bewildering (I think I missed a pulse before this one)
[15:30] Animal Lore: 37 07.38% concentrating

No fish caught here, but skills pulsed.
[15:33] Foraging: 121 91.59% perplexed
[15:33] Animal Lore: 37 10.25% concentrating

[15:34] You've pulled in a spiny-backed gar.
[15:34] Foraging: 121 91.59% dazed
[15:34] Animal Lore: 37 12.63% concentrating

I was trying my best to get the fish to bite as often as possible, and this is what I was able to get. So it took about 20 minutes to (almost) lock foraging. I got AL to concentrating thanks to 4 fish in the span of 3 minutes, 15:19-15:22. Getting 2.5-3% pulses on AL, Im assuming that would be a post-wall, or one rank after. That would seem to explain why it is hard to get past concentrating, but Ill have to wait for the next 3-4 ranks to see exactly where the wall-rank falls at. When I find the wall-rank, Ill do another test like this to see how different it is. Once again, guild is Warrior Mage. Survival tert, Lore secondary. I hope this can at least give you something to go off of Ssra. Nothing mental stats were changed since yesterday. Everything is the same except for AL rank.

Discipline : 30
Wisdom : 30
Intelligence : 30

(Nobody make a comment on my mentals, since I know a lot of you want to.)

-Master Ndin

I give it somewhere between 5 to 20 seconds, wave the pole every couple of casts, stuff like that. Seemed to get a lot better biting rate than if I just cast the pole and wait for a bite.


-Master Ndin

>>try cast, push the line out a bit, wiggle... wait... yank... wait.. pull the line in.. wait.. wiggle.. wait... then just keep pulling and wiggling, throw in the occassional yank.

I did a little more testing with the fishing since I last posted.

I haven't fished since yesterday, will have to try and see how the new exp gain is. If all Ssra changed was the exp code, however, and not the fishing code, waiting and wiggling, then pushing out and waiting more and wiggling etc etc... doesn't seem to be the best way to train at all.

If you see something like this:

You feel your line give an involuntary shudder (I forgot the exact message, the one indicating something has happened but not that you caught a fish), this is when you pull out, wave, and yank the pole. This message seems to indicate you have a fish near your pole.

In my experience, in a sense of experience per capita, re-casting often seems to be the greatest way to catch fish. By often I don't mean doing nothing but casting, waiting five seconds, pulling in and repeating endlessly... waving/pulling/yanking definitely does have an effect. However, I wouldn't bother waiting more then 15-20 seconds, 30 at the very maximum, before re-casting. Cast, wait for any confirmation message, wave it, push it out a little, wait 5 seconds, push out and wave again, wait five seconds, pull in, yank, wait... and then reel it in and repeat. Active, like someone said, but the maximized chance of catching definitely seems to be on the initial cast. 75% of my catches were immediately after casting.

If you don't get a bite for a few minutes at a time, no worries, you're not doing anything wrong. It happens every now and again. I must have fished for a total of about five hours trying various techniques, including just waiting (definitely the worst), varying waiting periods, varying luring techniques (simply waving, simply yanking, simply pulling and pushing, different combinations). The only factors that seemed to really stand out to me were A) re-casting often (every 15 seconds or so, I wouldn't recommend more then 30) and B) keeping your lure active when it is within the water.

Anyone else wanting to post results would be great. Though the exp cut does suck, I can understand it I guess.

---

It is easy to be brave from a safe distance.
-Aesop

I think it was stated in the past that some fish can be caught more easily by recasting and some by just letting the pole sit, but don't quote me.


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Gnomes Rule!