Fishing

Where the shelter stands

The Fishermen's Shelter has only one place it can be built: the small sandy cove in the south-west of the city, just to the right of where the river runs into the sea. That ground belongs to no other building, so the shelter takes no land plot from you. To build it you need only the first levels of the Town Hall and the Fishing Tackle research in the seafaring branch; you can raise it in the first days of your city.

The shelter grows with its level: more huts, drying racks and boats, and at the top a fish market and a stone breakwater. Its level also raises three things: how many casts can wait for you on the jetty, how many fish the shelter's store holds, and the most fish an hour the Tavern can serve.

Out on the jetty

Pressing the shelter does not open a window; you walk out onto the jetty, with the sea spread out in front of you. Your casts are shown at the top of the screen and the shelter's store at the bottom. To upgrade or demolish the shelter, the link in the header opens the building's own window.

To cast, press and hold the screen, pull your finger or the mouse down towards you and let go. The further you pull, the further the line flies; you aim by sliding left and right, and a ring on the water shows where the line will land. The keyboard works too: hold Space, aim with the arrow keys while the power swings back and forth, and release the key to send the line out.

Catching the strike

Once the float lands, the wait begins. Sometimes the float twitches but does not go under; that is only a nibble, and if you pull then, the fish takes fright and the cast is wasted. When a fish really bites, the float goes under, Strike! appears on screen and, if your phone supports it, it vibrates. Tap the screen or press Space at that moment. Be late and the fish takes the bait and escapes.

What a cast brings up is settled the moment the line hits the water; all you decide is whether you land it. Quick or slow, every cast starts with the same odds.

Casts

Fishing is not unlimited. You can cast as many times as you have casts saved up in the shelter; each cast uses one, and a new one arrives by itself every few minutes. Casts save up only to what the shelter can hold and the rest are lost, so if you step onto the jetty after a long time away, they are all waiting for you. Casts belong to the shelter: if two of your cities have a shelter, each saves up its own.

The shelter by level

For every level: the casts the shelter can save up, the fish its store holds and the most fish an hour the Tavern can serve at that level. How long a new cast takes to arrive is written at the top of the table.

What a cast brings up

Most casts hook a fish: sardine, horse mackerel, pandora, gilthead bream, sea bass. How many fish come up varies from cast to cast. Sometimes the line comes up empty. Very rarely a great bluefin tuna takes the hook. Rarer still, the sea gives up something that is not a fish: a find.

Chances

What comes up from a cast, how likely it is and how many of each fish arrive, without research or bait. The What does a cast bring up? panel on the jetty shows the odds as they stand now, with your research and your bait.

Bad-luck protection

If no find has come up for a long time, the chance rises a little with every cast and starts over once one comes up. However unlucky you are, a find will not keep you waiting for ever.

The fish store

The fish you catch go into the shelter's own store, not the Warehouse. If the store is full, only the part of the catch that fits is kept and you let the rest go back into the sea; the result card says so. A great fish is the exception: it goes in even when the store is full. Fish do not spoil and cannot be sold; their one job is to be served at the Tavern.

Fish at the Tavern

Below the grapes in the Tavern's window stands Fish service; it shows only if your city has a Fishermen's Shelter. You choose how many fish an hour to serve with a separate slider. The fish served take that many an hour out of the shelter's store and give happiness. When the store runs empty the fish service stops by itself and that happiness goes with it; the amount you chose is not lost, and when new fish come into the store the service picks up where it left off.

Fish do not take the place of grapes, but they are a good help alongside them, and for a city on an island with no vineyard they are a source of happiness from the very first days. The happiness from fish also counts towards the comfort your people expect (Needs).

The happiness fish brings

The happiness the fish served bring. The first fish bring the most; past the last row of the table, more fish add nothing.

Finds

When a find comes up on the line, you see it rise out of the water: an amphora, a heap of coins, a piece of a statue or a mosaic. Every find is one of a kind; where it came from and how it lay in the sea are its own. A find goes to your Mouseion's storeroom, and from there you show it in the Mouseion of any city you like or give it to another player. A sea find on show gives happiness, a little less than a treaty object. More: Mouseion.

Special bait and rod

You can buy special bait and a special rod with Seals. The bait runs down by one with every cast and the rod wears with use; neither lasts for ever. Both only shift the odds a little: fewer empty casts, and big fish and finds a little more often. Casts are not sold for Seals. What the bait adds to the odds is written plainly on the jetty, under the box for using the bait.

Research

Four researches in the seafaring branch are set aside for fishing, spread through the tree. Fishing Tackle opens the shelter. Bait Lore raises the chance of a catch, Sea Currents the chance of a great fish and Deep Water the chance of a find. Research belongs to the player and applies to all your shelters.