Originally posted by Subsonic:

If all you want is raw fish then you never need to use higher level bait. Just buy regular bait from the merchant and have a good time fishing in the Meadows. If you like the fishing "quest" then it's something extra to mess around with while doing the progression and exploration in Valheim.

Quest? Do you mean getting the Hat? Ok I could just about see that but lord I hope that's not the Fishing end game!

Originally posted by Subsonic:

If all you want is raw fish then you never need to use higher level bait. Just buy regular bait from the merchant and have a good time fishing in the Meadows. If you like the fishing "quest" then it's something extra to mess around with while doing the progression and exploration in Valheim.

As for higher level bait catching lower level fish--yeah, that sounds bad because you'll end up catching fish you didn't want instead of the ones you're actually trying to get, as mentioned in a previous post. Also, if you have ever fished outside of a video game, some fish are definitely easier to catch with the right lure/bait setup. Maybe they'll tweak it more, maybe not--but since it's entirely optional then I guess you get to choose whether you want to pursue higher tier fish or just use the lower tier ones, or pick up whatever you can find laying on the shores.

I see 2 points here, and i think both are easily rebuked, lemme explain why:

1- "If all you want is raw fish then you never need to use higher level bait. Just buy regular bait from the merchant and have a good time fishing in the Meadows."

Even in the meadow, you may get fish you wich won´t be able to get fished. I don´t know why, probably fish that traveled from other areas, but i can positively state that even in meadow i got the "won´t take the bait" message. So even here you may lose some fishes just because bait constaints-

2- "As for higher level bait catching lower level fish--yeah, that sounds bad because you'll end up catching fish you didn't want instead of the ones you're actually trying to get, as mentioned in a previous post."

Also not a real problem. Between getting the "wrong" fish and getting "won´t take the bait" (and no fish) i think its better to be able to catch the lesser fix. You can just throw it away if you want to keep the inventory space. If the "specific bait" ensured every fish would "magically turn" into your desired fish, it would be a point, but it doesn´t works like that. Undesired fish will be attracted too, just won´t bait. So as said, being just unable to fish lesser fish is pointless. I think is objectively better to be able to catch those "lesser fish" while waiting for the right one to appear, than getting nothing. And even in the only case where it could be a minnor annoyance (occuping a inventory slot with undesired fish) you could just throw it. Much less annoying than being fully constrained.

Originally posted by Cluas:

I really do not understand why the fish even had an update, when there is so much other stuff to work on.

Fishing is not for everyone, and personally my character will never wear a fishing hat

couldnt have said it better myself, the fishing should be the least of their priorities since fishing is like filler content in between core progression and crafting and doesnt become too "mandatory" outside the scope of upgrading your food buffs for later content

the game is bleeding out in terms of replayability and incentive for players to revisit previous biomes and their most recent addition mistlands being the worst in this regard because its the absolute most replayability hostile biome of them all besides serving as the smog for fanboys who ignore every negative scope of the game

so many things that could change stuff like taming and replacing its current methods being straight up tedious and time consuming vs something immersive and beneficial to the player like a taming progression model starting with bear dogs which are then used to help tame more aggressive animals instead of just sitting on your ass in base for 2-3 days watching hearts popping up like youre playing the sims.

at least theyre working on respawning enemies even if it only boils down to the most recent dungeons but at least its something, focus on what matters

I mean, I disagree with most of the naysayers here. I actually like it. In fishing irl, different fish prefer different baits as well. I thought the fishing update was awesome. I'm glad to have some variety in this direction, as I'm one of those gamers that prefers the laid back homestead playstyle many times. I'm happy they touched on it. Different kinds of gamers everywhere, and there's my input.

I side with @jsholdschl on this. Specific fish hit specific baits in RL so the way the game handles it now is fine for me.

@Subsonic actually make a really strong point in that players would probably not like their high level bait to be used on low tier fish.

Ultimately I think @Rhapsody is correct in that we will probably see recipes based on the tier of the fish with the higher tier recipes giving greater benefits and thus justifying the work to craft specific bait (we still have an Ocean update so who knows what we might be able to fish up and cook).

I suppose if I was in the OPs position of 'the fish is not taking the bait' and I knew I had the right bait for the biome I would just move to a new fishing hole.

Originally posted by Eightball:

I side with @jsholdschl on this. Specific fish hit specific baits in RL so the way the game handles it now is fine for me.

@Subsonic actually make a really strong point in that players would probably not like their high level bait to be used on low tier fish.

Well 2 points here. Let me discuss them.

1- About realism:

Im not professional fisherman, but have been fishing with friends and such, just on a ludic way. Sure there may be prefered bait for certain fishes, but usually as far i´ve noticed usually people use a general, all-purpose bait, wich most fish will take even if not "prefered". I don´t think even in real life there would be a single specific bait for a single specific fish in a 1:1 equivalence, meaning that bait only works for that fish, and that certain fish will only take a single specific bait. (Well, maybe some very rare fish, but seems exceptional)

Also about realism, talking about Valheim, i think one of the main point sof valheim is setting the realism somewhat aside in favor for fun. Like, you don´t starve, or get thirsty till deat, and so on. Sometimes less is more, and sometimes simpler mechanics makes games more enjoyable. Im all-in with adding "depth", different bait with different properties, and such, but not in that way thar, as said previously, seems a huge constraint and somewhat frustrating as you have to spend much more time fishing to actually fish anything. Also about realism, well, we have skeletons, magic, and stuff, so its neither like the game pretend to be a simulator as to stick to the more realistic way of doing everything.

2- Loosing high level bait to lesser fish:

Well, right now, "high fishes" gives just the same than "lower fishes" (raw fish) but in a higher amount. The only reward for getting a high-fish is just to get more of the same. In that sense, if the target of the player is to get as many raw fish as possible, it still would be better to catch anything (even if its worth just 1 raw fish) than spending much more time getting high-fish wiich will be more. Sure, high-bait would be more "efficient", but less effective. And then comes the second point:

High-bait fish isn´t actually all that much hard to get. "wasting" it by getting a lower-tier fish is not really so much of a waste, and as stated on previous paragraph, probably the annoyance of "getting a lower-tier-fish" is still less annoying than getting no fish even if that means "saving" the high-tier-bait, wich actually isn´t all that hard to get.

Hope this makes sense.

Lox and serpent trophies aren't super easy to come by. As far as I'm concerned, there are 2 kinds of fishing currently...
1. Fishing for raw fish...most easily done in the meadows with cheap and plentiful bait
2. Jumping through all the hoops to get angler fish to make fish n bread.

Anyone going through all the effort to get top tier bait and fish for angler fish in Mistlands probably has more raw fish than they will ever use.

Originally posted by Dwarflord:

Lox and serpent trophies aren't super easy to come by. As far as I'm concerned, there are 2 kinds of fishing currently...
1. Fishing for raw fish...most easily done in the meadows with cheap and plentiful bait
2. Jumping through all the hoops to get angler fish to make fish n bread.

Anyone going through all the effort to get top tier bait and fish for angler fish in Mistlands probably has more raw fish than they will ever use.

No, not really, since you don't have to stock up hard at each level. You only need one fish of the required type to make the next bait--but now that requirement has been removed with the latest update. You just need the trophy and regular bait. So I guess all that fishing isn't needed to rise up the fishing progression. 1 fish of each type is all you need for mastery and most of those you can just pick up on shorelines after storms. It's not nearly as hard as it's being made out to be.

while i dont agree that the baits themselfs are a bad mechanic i do agree that fishing currently simply does not feel worth bothering with. its kinda like rideing and lox/boar breeding. just not worth the effort currently.

adding more unique recipes which require fish types would help alot with this problem. and no fish and bread is awful. its super inefficent for a stamina booster food. requires too much for just 1 of it. meanwhile salad is barely weaker and can be mass produced stupid easy compared. and faster aswell.

+1
I couldn´t agree more

Originally posted by Seinekar:

What is really annoying is to introduce a bait system wich actually reduces and constraints very heavily your ability to fish anything.

I'd offset that by having more fish recipes available, but I guess we can only try to be patient about it. Here's hoping we get at least one new fish recipe with Hildir's quest stuff and don't have to wait all the way until Ashlands. :/

I really do not understand why the fish even had an update, when there is so much other stuff to work on.

Fishing is not for everyone, and personally my character will never wear a fishing hat

+1
Higher quality bait should still be able to catch lower quality fish.

Originally posted by Yes, I have a Mic.:

+1
Higher quality bait should still be able to catch lower quality fish.

and then people would complain that their super expensive fishing bait was consumed for a low quality fish.
this thread feels like bait

If all you want is raw fish then you never need to use higher level bait. Just buy regular bait from the merchant and have a good time fishing in the Meadows. If you like the fishing "quest" then it's something extra to mess around with while doing the progression and exploration in Valheim.

As for higher level bait catching lower level fish--yeah, that sounds bad because you'll end up catching fish you didn't want instead of the ones you're actually trying to get, as mentioned in a previous post. Also, if you have ever fished outside of a video game, some fish are definitely easier to catch with the right lure/bait setup. Maybe they'll tweak it more, maybe not--but since it's entirely optional then I guess you get to choose whether you want to pursue higher tier fish or just use the lower tier ones, or pick up whatever you can find laying on the shores.