Category
Other
What is the suggestion?
Fishing cages should be able to be made with a small log and two sticks. When put on a water tile, they can be baited with anything that works as fishing bait. The difference is, fishing cages do not catch normal fish and instead catch shellfish. Crabs and shrimp replace carp, mussels replace eels, and lobsters replace anglerfish in terms of how common each one is, and the different types of bait will have similar chances of trapping their respective shellfish stand-in. Crabs, shrimp, and lobsters can be cooked like normal fish and cut into mince. These should not spoil, same as our current fish. When sold to the Merchant's balloon, shrimp and crabs should be worth the same as carp, mussels should be worth the same as eels, and lobsters should be worth the same as anglerfish. There should be rare, ultra-rare, and legendary variants of each of these too, copying the export prices of their non-shellfish equivalents respectively.
Fishing cages should take time to trap something depending on the fishing skill of the person that baited them, higher skill makes the trap catch something faster. Having high skill has a higher chance of trapping a rarer variant of the shellfish and lets you to harvest a trap faster too. Baiting a fishing cage should give experience towards the fishing skill, and harvesting a trap with something caught inside should also provide EXP. Fishing cages should be able to be carried on back slots, and Master Fisherman should spawn with a fishing cage on his back instead of a fishing rod, his rod should instead start in the hip slot that's not occupied by his hunting knife. Have his frying pan replace one of the worms in his satchel since worms can be dug up anywhere there's water. At expert-level fishing (regular Fisher's starting level), it should take one minute for a fishing cage to trap something, and at legendary-level it should only take about 20 or 30 seconds for a cage to trap something. This might seem short, but at expert-level fishing it only takes about 10 seconds to catch a fish with a rod, so it's still much longer comparatively than doing it the active way.
Mussels must be pried open with any type of knife, (stone knife, knife, dagger, hunting knife, cleaver) before they can be cooked or minced. Prying open a mussel produces a piece of mussel meat (which should not spoil since other fish don't) and two empty shells. Using a knife on mussel meat produces mince like other meat. Shells can be made into shell bracelets with two shells and a piece of fiber, and made into shell necklaces with four shells and a piece of fiber. I believe the individual shells and trinkets made from them should be worth a little bit at least to the Merchant. Shell bracelets and necklaces should work as prayer items to Abyssor like Astrata amulets do for Astrata, and they should let Devout Followers to Abyssor pray anywhere as long as they are wearing or holding one.
An extra feature to mussels:
Mussels should have a small chance to drop a pearl when pried open, and an even smaller chance of dropping a black pearl when pried open. The staff should determine what pearls are worth individually compared to other exportable valuables, but my recommendation is about 20 or so mammons before taxes are included, black pearls should be worth around 60 or so. Pearls can be made into a pearl bracelet with 3 pearls and 1 piece of fiber, which should be worth 70 due to it being an already finished piece of jewelry. A pearl necklace can be crafted with 5 pearls and 1 piece of fiber, which should be worth around 120 mammon or so. There could also be a black pearl variant of both of these trinkets if the spriters want to sprite that too. Crafting pearl jewelry takes regular craftsmanship skills, but if you aren't high-leveled in it then you'll either have a low chance to succeed or have no chance at all.
Cooked lobster can be crafted into lobster dinner with a slice of butter, it should function exactly like peppersteak. I can't think of any other seafood recipes until the cooking system allows soup to be made.
Why is this suggestion good?
Gives fishermen two ways to go about fishing for the town instead of just one, and it allows people to train the fishing skill since you'll still get EXP for baiting and harvesting a cage even with no skill. There's talk of wanting to expand Towner and RP roles, and I think this would be a good way to expand one of the production roles that also lets them make other types of trinkets too. Abyssor doesn't have an Acolyte type yet, I think shell bracelets and necklaces are a good way to start fleshing out Abyssor-themed religious items.
Staff consulted
No response