Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons Discussion Thread: Skiffs and Fishing [Merged]

[zealex.9410]

I have no issue with skiff as a feature however their animations looked poor, like it movements were rigid no apparent change in the water as the skiff moved and the movement itself felt like it disregarded that water isnt just air.

[Teratus.2859]

4 minutes ago, zealex.9410 said:

I have no issue with skiff as a feature however their animations looked poor, like it movements were rigid no apparent change in the water as the skiff moved and the movement itself felt like it disregarded that water isnt just air.

I think i'd have to agree with you on this.
Perhaps the problem is more to do with it's speed?

I dunno about the rest of you guys but fishing to me in video games is kind of a chill out thing to do so having a slow boat to chill drive around the place would feel better than one that zooms around on the water.

Hopefully the Skiff will have a "walk" speed as well so we can cruise around and chill on it 😄

Oh oh.. just thought of this too, how about an auto-drive feature too with manually set waypoints so we can plot a course and then let the boat cruise on it's own while we relax and do some fishing or something.
Might be tricky to do since I expect the Skiff functions a lot like a mount.
But i'd love something like this.

Edited July 28, 2021 by Teratus.2859

[Kyniel.4706]

I love this - it wasn't high on my wishlist but I'm excited to get out there and fish, especially as it'll be something we can do all over Tyria. The skiffs are also very cool! The only thing I wonder is what will be the incentive to use another player's skiff if everyone has one? Looking forward to more information!

[Blazing Rathalos.1904]

I think the main interesting aspect of the Skiff is its ability to function as a multi-person mount, like the siege turtle. I have to agree that the animations on it didn't seem to convincing yet. Also, while they said we can walk around on the Skiffs, I noticed that when sailing, all players were "seated". So, they probably don't have collision unless the Skiff is "parked". That's unfortunate, but I guess the alternative was not technically feasible. That doesn't mean they can't possibly give us combat skills while seated in some scenarios. I think Skiff combat like that would be something that elevates it to a significant feature.

 

As for fishing: I'll be honest and say that I'm personally not interested at all. I do think there's a potential for them to make it fun, but that depends largely on the exact implementation, both in gameplay mechanics and rewards. With this feature specifically, I fell they should have gone into much more detail, since it seems unappetizing without knowing the details.

[Pomdepin.7068]

0 interest in either at the moment.

Fishing is the most boring activity in any game to me. We'll see if you can make it interesting and useful.

Skiffs are equally useless to me. I fail to see the point. We would have gotten some kind of upgradable warships with a new type of gameplay ok, but if it's just a boat for various people to just fish, I'll have no interest.

[Danikat.8537]

13 hours ago, Randulf.7614 said:

I would think it’s likely skiffs could become a launch for more boat type content to be developed over time

That really confused me at first. Both skiffs and launches are types of boat, so I thought you were suggesting that the skiff could be somehow upgraded or replaced with a launch (which is specifically an open-topped motor boat, so I suppose it is already a type of skiff).

 

Then I realised you just meant once they've got boats they can start adding more ways to use them. 😄

 

That does seem likely. Boat races are one obvious choice, but since one boat will apparently hold multiple players boat-based combat seems like a good choice too. I don't know if the 'passengers' will be able to use their normal skills, but either way maybe they could add the option for cannons or harpoons or something.

 

Also I wonder if it's possible to use a siege turtle on top of someone else's boat?

Edited July 28, 2021 by Danikat.8537

[achronis.3597]

So would we have different rods and bait to use?  

[Tyncale.1629]

Can't help but think there is more to Skiffs then initially meets the eye.  Do not forget that Anet would probably never do housing as we know it from other MMO's. Let us look at the description.

 

• "Your home away from home" This alone is very intriguing. Look at those tiny skiffs. It is a tall statement, when the boats come out as nothing more then meets the eye: small 12 feet long open boats where you can walk three steps.  I see the little boats in the pic and can not imagine that this is all there is to them: step up boat, walk 3 steps, sit on bench and throw out rod.   Nope, thats not a Home away from Home. 
•  
• "Explore": how will the boats be better in exploring sandy beaches, small hidden bays and underwater grotto's then the already existing Skimmers? Wall off ocean areas where you can only "explore" with the skifss but not your skimmer? Not Anets style. There must be more to this. 
•  
• "Relax":  very promising remark.  Relax, like hop on your boat, throw out your rod and sit on the bench with your rod for 30 minutes? No, there must be more to it. 
•  
• "Ferry your whole party": So you can take your party on the boat. That screams "instanced" to me, unless they think it is fun to stand on a 12 feet boat with 5 characters that all are Fishing? Waiting to arrive at some spot? Doing nothing? That sounds like something nobody would enjoy more then 1 minute.  Must be more to this too. 
•  
• "Drop anchor to fish" could indeed be a pure Fishing feature: you need the skiff to get to certain good fishing spots on the open sea since you can not fish from a skimmer,  
• "Walk around" sounds like you can reach areas with your skiff that your Skimmer can not get to. Kinda lame but possible.  More interestingly: they could bring yout to instanced dungeon-type content that you "ferry" your party to. Or even Guildhall type areas that you can decorate...
•  
• "and more":  well I guess I am going to put my hopes in this remark. 🙂
•  
• TLDR: My Hunch: boats will be the vehicles that may be instanced themselves and/or  will bring you to instanced "guildhall" type areas scattered across the ocean where you can party up, adventure, (party)Fish (off course), get loot and decorate with stuff from your Fishy adventures.  I think Fishing will be implemented in an amazing way(including group-content), that will yield all types of new loot that you can use to decorate your Pirate's Cove hideout with.  Possibly Skiffs themselves will actually be your Personal Space that you can decorate(instanced off course). 

 

Or Skiffs are just a simple tool for Fishing that will be able to get to areas, that they walled off from skimmers. That would be kinda disappointing. 😌

 

Edited July 28, 2021 by Tyncale.1629

[Sobx.1758]

21 minutes ago, Tyncale.1629 said:

• "Relax":  very promising remark.  Relax, like hop on your boat, throw out your rod and sit on the bench with your rod for 30 minutes? No, there must be more to it. 

Nah, I think that's mostly what it is and it's k.

 

21 minutes ago, Tyncale.1629 said:

• "Ferry your whole party": So you can take your party on the boat. That screams "instanced" to me, unless they think it is fun to stand on a 12 feet boat with 5 characters that all are Fishing? Waiting to arrive at some spot? Doing nothing? That sounds like something nobody would enjoy more then 1 minute.  Must be more to this too.

I don't see how this "screams instanced", you'll be able to get another player on your turtle, so according to that logic, it means turtles are instanced? 🙃 

No. It doesn't mean it definitely won't be, but I doubt and your reasoning here is a huge stretch.

 

Edited July 28, 2021 by Sobx.1758

[blp.3489]

You can't go deep sea fishing with a skimmer so they have that use without creating artificial skimmer walls.

[Farohna.6247]

I think it's just something to get people to want to do fishing, tournaments with friends or guild, etc.  We shall see.  As a personal instance, I don't really see it but maybe.  Also, I'm genuinely curious to for those excited about player housing...how much time do you actually spend in something like that...I mean guild halls and personal instances now are more as needed, farm some nodes, leave, or just a place to pause in while afk.  

[Sobx.1758]

And since we'll be able to walk around on them, there's a possibility they will be needed for some events/content to fill the role of portable isles so you can use your regular land skills from them

[Tyncale.1629]

1 minute ago, Farohna.6247 said:

Also, I'm genuinely curious to for those excited about player housing...how much time do you actually spend in something like that...I mean guild halls and personal instances now are more as needed, farm some nodes, leave, or just a place to pause in while afk.  

This is always a good point when it comes to Housing. The time spent would mostly be the time people spend to decorate it and that all depends on how Anet would implement it.  I admit right away that simply sitting in your house itself is absolutely boring and I think nobody does that(for long).  I was thinking that people could build entire Jumping Puzzles in their Instance: that would keep them busy, AND would be interesting for JP-lovers. But simply decorating can be a time consuming job too, and there are lots of people would come and check out other peoples houses. 

 

However, I am pretty sure Anet is not going that way. So I am thinking Fishing and Skiffs are more of a new type of Party content that involves instancing, with small areas and possibly some Decorate Light feature that ties into the Loot you get from Fishing.   If Fishing just yields ingredients for more (useless) food for the already useless Cooking discipline, that would be a disappointment. Cooking and food are a side-gimmick at best.  I expect (party) Fishing to be cool (the Anet way) so I hope the yields of that will be used for more then just some new recipes.  Well, I guess you will need some Seamonsters head for one of the new Legendaries maybe. 🙂

[Tyncale.1629]

8 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

And since we'll be able to walk around on them, there's a possibility they will be needed for some events/content to fill the role of portable isles so you can use your regular land skills from them

Yes, that makes sense. 

[achronis.3597]

I don't see how skiffs could be a player's "home".  IMO, it looks more of a group mount.  For me, I could totally see an overhaul to the home instance making it player housing.  The decorating feature (from guildhalls) could be introduced and home nodes could be an active "decoration" where a player could move where they want.  This would make players more interested in scribing and building decorations for their homes.

[notebene.3190]

It's still not entirely clear to me whether I'll be able to fish, skiff or turtle alone. The way they were presented, I can't tell if the omission was because "of course", and they don't need to sell to me, they need to sell to other people, or if one, all, or some combo of those things really required other people.

[Randulf.7614]

2 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

That really confused me at first. Both skiffs and launches are types of boat, so I thought you were suggesting that the skiff could be somehow upgraded or replaced with a launch (which is specifically an open-topped motor boat, so I suppose it is already a type of skiff).

 

Then I realised you just meant once they've got boats they can start adding more ways to use them. 😄

 

That does seem likely. Boat races are one obvious choice, but since one boat will apparently hold multiple players boat-based combat seems like a good choice too. I don't know if the 'passengers' will be able to use their normal skills, but either way maybe they could add the option for cannons or harpoons or something.

 

Also I wonder if it's possible to use a siege turtle on top of someone else's boat?

Yeah I meant it’s the first step in developing something bigger in the future. Like mounts came from novelties, perhaps skiffs (prob based on mounts) set the scene for warships, guild ships and sailing boats later down the line

[ChronoPinoyX.7923]

1 minute ago, Randulf.7614 said:

Yeah I meant it’s the first step in developing something bigger in the future. Like mounts came from novelties, perhaps skiffs (prob based on mounts) set the scene for warships, guild ships and sailing boats later down the line

I'd love to actually see this. A Guild War PvP with Warships involved would be amazing. 

[Omega.6801]

I hope not.

[Embered.5089]

"Home away from home"

makes me think of those personal sailboats that rich people like to take a few meters into the ocean and then just chill there. Not something that i would ever be interested in, but i think this is what it's supposed to compare to.

 

"Explore"

It's not instanced. They said that you can fish anywhere in the world, and skiffs come with fishing, so i'm pretty sure you can skiff anywhere, too. It's a way of taking a boat ride with your friends. I also don't think that any place will allow skiffs but not skimmers.

 

"Relax"

is just what it sounds like imo. Some people really like chilling on boats in the middle of nowhere and soaking up the scenery or chatting with their buddies. You could place down a Sweet Campfire Treat and pull out your musical instruments and have music night, too.

 

"Ferry your whole party"

Again, not instanced. I personally would use this to have fun with people who don't have skiffs, like newbs. I mentor newbs often. Showing them a boat that they can obtain themselves one day is pretty nice.

 

"Drop anchor to fish"

I think you need to be on a boat if you want to fish in the middle of the ocean. Otherwise, you need to be on a shore. I didn't hear them say that you can fish from atop of mounts, so anyone who wanted to fish from the siege turtle will be disappointed. And this makes sense to me. When you ride a mount, your hotbar abilities are replaced with mount abilities. So where are they gonna fit the fishing abilities? You need a skiff if you wanna fish in the deep waters.

 

"Walk around"

I take this to mean that there's enough space on the skiff to pace around. Doesn't seem like much space, though. Gonna be crowded with just a few people.

 

"and more"

Well, there is a mastery line dedicated to it so we'll see.

[decease.3215]

Imo i find the idea real cool.. If only we have any real use... Lets see how it goes

[Danikat.8537]

I think you're reading too much into it. From what we've seen these are relatively small, open-topped boats with not a lot of space, and we already known it will be possibly to entirely re-skin them like mounts, which makes it unlikely we'll be able to place decorations.

 

I also think it's unlikely that each word of the description is intended to hint at a different type of content which has otherwise gone unmentioned. For example explore seems fairly self-explanatory to me: it's a boat, it moves around and can therefore be used to explore. They didn't say it would be better than other options (like the skimmer) and I think if it was going to be the only way to access certain areas they would have said that.

 

Likewise I really don't see why being able to transport your party would mean it's instanced. It just means it's another multi-person 'mount' like the siege turtle.

 

Have you seen the boats you can ride in Sandswept Isles and the Labyrinthine Cliffs? I think what we're getting is something like that, but instead of being on a fixed path one of the players will be steering.

 

21 minutes ago, notebene.3190 said:

It's still not entirely clear to me whether I'll be able to fish, skiff or turtle alone. The way they were presented, I can't tell if the omission was because "of course", and they don't need to sell to me, they need to sell to other people, or if one, all, or some combo of those things really required other people.

Some of the promo images show a skiff with only one person in it. This one for example: https://cdn.ncwest.com/gw2/eod/DD2ooTbg6xziiB5KyO8S/417009c0-b114-4123-b984-8ae1001c5008/images/media/screenshots/EoD-Announce-Screens_8_Full.jpg

 

So it looks like we will be able to use them solo as well as in groups.

[Stelawrat.6589]

Maybe we begin with a skiff, but they evolve into something more substantial over time. 

Maybe as we explore the oceans' maps with them, we discover new islands. 

Maybe there are NPCs waiting to hijack us on the open seas!  

Maybe we discover a race of warrior Quaggans who don't appreciate our messing with their fish! 😬

Maybe our fishing pole doubles as a weapon! 

 

I'm looking forward to whatever ANet has planned. Hopefully, it includes some of these maybes. 🙂

[LucianDK.8615]

People is definitely reading too much into it if they think its about decorations.

[Danikat.8537]

One interesting thing I noticed looking at this promo picture: https://cdn.ncwest.com/gw2/eod/DD2ooTbg6xziiB5KyO8S/417009c0-b114-4123-b984-8ae1001c5008/images/media/screenshots/EoD-Announce-Screens_8_Full.jpg

 

There doesn't appear to be anywhere to attach a sail or oars but there is a glowing green crystal at the back of the boat, near the rudder. The trailer mentioned Canthans using jade for all kinds of new magic, so maybe the boat is also powered by magical jade? In that case it might tie into the story as well as being a new 'mount'.