Guide to multi-fishing for fun and profit
Fishing. meh.
I remember the old fishing days back when EQ was shiny and new and thus before all MMOs went easy-mode. In a game full of horrific grinding fishing was the grind of all grinds. I have been an avid real-life fisherman (even some commercial) since I was a kid and this only made the pain worse.
I was horrified at how terrifyingly boring it was. Yes that's right, horror at the amount of terror .
WHY??!!
This is a guide in remembrance of those days to try and take as much of the pain out of fishing as possible. The rest of the pain can be removed by only fishing in warm weather, while listening to your favourite music/podcast and consuming a 6 pack.
I am a rift newbie but have played a stupid number of MMOs in the past. I will evolve this guide as I learn more but wanted to begin it while the information was fresh in my mind. I apologise if any information is incorrect and suggestions are welcome.
Setting up your tackle:
- Drag your fishing icon to an unused action bar slot and bind it to an easy to hit key. (I use HOME)
- Make sure you are configured to be able to global broadcast your fishing key to all clients. (Either using the global repeater or by adding a hotkey in Isboxer)
- *optional* In Isboxer create a mapped key that has a single action that clicks the first mouse button in all clients. Bind it to something easy to press and near the fishing key. (I use INSERT) You don't need this but it is much easier and means you never use the mouse after initial setup.
- *optional* Setup your "whack-a-mole" fishing keys if using the advanced fishing method. Bind a seperate set of 5 keys (ideally in a row) that will click the fishing button for each of your 5 characters in the same order as your party.
(NB: there is certainly to be some advanced Isboxer config to toggle these keys into and out of fishing mode so the keys are not "wasted". I am going to look into this for the future.)
HOW TO FISH
Below are two methods for catching multiple fish at a time. If you set up the advanced method you can use both methods as you please.
The advanced method has the opportunity to hook all five fish every time with practice but requires additional setup and more keys. The new and improved simple method will allow you to land 4-5 fish each cast (with 5 being more common) and so the advanced method is probably not necessary for most.
Method 1: Simple Fishing Process:
I tried several methods of "simple" fishing before finding the best one. Using this method successfully you will be able to hook 4-5 fish (mostly 5) a cast most of the time but it takes some practice.
The trick is to not click the global mouse button too soon after seeing the rod bob up and down. Wait for 0.5 seconds or so. It appears that while hitting the mouse button at the completely wrong time will not lose you a fish (you can spam this button with no fish hooked with no effect) if you hit it just as (or just before) the fish is caught you DO risk losing it. It took some experimentation to find this out.
But if you click methodically at the right time you can land all 5 character's fish most of the time - even when they need to be played twice to land. Practice makes perfect.
Fishing:
- Setup any lures you are using
- Hit the fishing button and position your mouse in every window so that all characters have a yellow fishing circle NEAR YOUR CHARACTER and thus can fish successfully. (you don't need to move the mouse again after this)
- Test to make sure that while fishing spamming the global mouse button does not disengage any of your fisherpersons. If it does, adjust that fishing circle as close to the character as you can without it going red.
- Hit your global "fake" mouse click key to make all characters start fishing.
- Once you have hooked a fish, wait a brief moment and hit the global mouse click button.
- Keep hitting it in the same way (i.e. with a brief delay) every time a rod bobs. Sometimes you will get unlucky and lose one but it will work most of the time.
- Once all fish are landed hit the fishing button at least TWICE to reset everyone back to fishing mode. (once only resets some chars)
- Goto step 4)
Method 2: Whack-a-mole fishing process:
This is a little bit harder to setup and uses extra keys but turns fishing into a whack-a-mole mini-game. Fun for the whole family!
(NB: using kids to fish for you 18 hours a day for no pay while you go RL fishing is totally NOT cool...apparently)
Fishing:
- Hit the GLOBAL fishing button and use your mouse in each window separately to line up and space out your fishing lines in the same order as your party so you can tell your lines apart and which button to click. (you don't need to move the mouse again)
- Hit your global "fake" mouse click key to make all characters start fishing.
- As each fishing line requires action, click the appropriate fishing key for that character.
- Once all fish are landed hit the global fishing button at least TWICE to reset everyone back to fishing mode. (once only resets some chars)
- Goto step 2)
Hope this helps someone. In retrospect it is pretty obvious stuff but sometimes the obvious is only obvious AFTER you have read it!
And always, ALWAYS remember "The worst day fishing is better than the best day working."