Hello,
In Age of Kings and The Conquerors, fishing with fish traps was not viable because it required far too much APM (Actions Per Minute). There was no automatic re-seeding for fish traps, and unlike farms, a right-click could not renew them. The Forgotten expansion introduced the Malays, who could finally fish effectively. Definitive Edition fixed this issue for all civilizations, which is great.
However, fishing in the Imperial Age remains less efficient than farming. It should be balanced. To achieve this balance, for example, fish traps could be made to hold x% less food before the Gillnets technology is researched. Then, Gillnets would increase their food capacity to a point where the food-per-minute rate of fish traps becomes identical to that of farms.
Best regards,
i think this is intended:
In dark age and feudal age, fishing is an incredible source of food. Not requiring villagers is a huge advantage over hunting/farming. Later drops off fairly quickly as fishing spots become further and further away from the docks. fish traps are meant as a last resort, so fishing ships have something to do in the end game. They are not meant to be as good as farms.
Like so many things in this game this is kind of trade off makes decision making interesting: Do i invest in a few more fishing ships for a short term gain, or in farms for long term
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After gillnets is researched, fish traps are actually faster than farming (for generic civs). Before crop rotation, fish traps are much more wood-efficient, which is an advantage in itself. We do see some fish booms in black forest, mainly because that allows players to boom earlier.
The main reason against a fish boom is the fact that fishing ships (and fish traps) are generally harder to protect than farmers are. And with how much fish traps cost, replacing them isn’t cheap. And there’s also the issue that they require water, which isn’t always available.
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